Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
A Pragmatic Randomized Prospective Trial of Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation of the Medial Branch Nerves versus Facet Joint Injection of Corticosteroid for the Treatment of Lumbar Facet Syndrome: 12 Month Outcomes.
Lumbar medial branch radiofrequency ablation (LRFA) and intraarticular facet steroid injections (FJI) are commonly performed for recalcitrant facet joint-mediated pain. However, no study has compared clinical outcomes of the two treatments in patients selected using dual medial branch blocks (MBBs) with an 80% relief threshold. ⋯ C-LRFA demonstrated superior success rates compared to FJI across pain and functional outcome domains.