If you’ve ever had chronic pain, you know how frustrating it can be to find relief, especially if you feel as though you’ve tried everything under the sun — without success. However, if your symptoms involve nerves, we could have an answer that finally helps.
Our skilled physicians at Glaser Pain Relief Center in Encino, California, specialize in treating complex pain conditions in the most effective, targeted ways possible. For people struggling with persistent neck pain or back pain, that could involve “turning off” the pain at the source with radiofrequency ablation.
When treating pain, people often overlook that nerves trigger these symptoms. Every time you feel pain, it’s because a nerve fires off a message to your brain telling it there’s a problem. After processing the message, your brain sends a response, which causes you to feel burning, ache, or pain.
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) disrupts this process by destroying the nerve tissue sending this pain signal. The result? There’s nothing for your brain to respond to, so you don’t experience any pain. This highly effective and targeted approach can successfully address numerous forms of pain, such as:
The best part is that RFA doesn’t require surgery. Instead, we use a small needle and heat to treat the affected nerve tissue.
We typically determine if RFA is right for you by injecting a nerve block in the area first. If this temporary medication relieves your pain, we move forward with the more long-term solution by ablating the nerve.
During a radiofrequency ablation treatment, we use real-time X-ray guidance to insert a thin, hollow needle into the nerve that’s sending the pain signals. Then we guide an electrode through the needle to deliver therapeutic radio waves to the problem nerve.
When exposed to the radio waves, the heat creates a lesion on the nerve. This keeps it from sending pain signals to your brain, essentially “turning off” the pain switch. The targeted approach ensures that healthy nerves in the area remain unharmed and continue functioning as usual.
RFA takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of nerves requiring treatment. After your appointment, you can go home to rest. You may have some tenderness, pain, or muscle spasms at the injection site, but pain medication and ice can ease this discomfort. We recommend taking it easy for a day or two before resuming normal activity.
For many of our patients, this targeted therapy improves function in the treatment site and decreases the need for pain medication moving forward.
Generally, you can expect your pain relief to last for 6-12 months or even several years. However, nerve tissue can regrow, so you may need additional RFA treatments in the future.
Do you have persistent back pain or neck pain? Find out if radiofrequency ablation at Glaser Pain Relief Center could help. Contact us to schedule a consultation by calling or requesting a visit online today.
