The Efficacy and Safety of Radiofrequency Neurotomy in the Treatment of Chronic Cervical Facet (Zygapophyseal) Joint Pain: A Retrospective Study

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of traditional radiofrequency ablation (TRFA) for the treatment of cervical facet-mediated pain.We evaluated 169 TRFA procedures performed on 64 patients who had clinical diagnoses of chronic cervical facet-mediated pain.TRFA was performed in patients who were refractory to conservative therapy and responded favorably to two sets of diagnostic medial branch blocks.Materials and Methods: For patients who underwent TRFA, pain scores were recorded on a numeric rating scale (NRS) at different pretreatment and post-treatment follow-up (FU) time points [1 st (4-8 weeks), 2 nd (>2-6 months) and 3 rd (>6 months)].The primary outcomes were NRS improvement and average improvement from baseline NRS (at least 50% or more) at each FU time point.The secondary outcome measure was the time to repeat treatment with subsequent cervical TRFA.Results: The primary outcome measure was achieved in 1 st FU time-point with 56.75% pain reduction.In the 2 nd and 3 rd FU, we found a 47.66% and 21.47% reduction in NRS, respectively.Our subgroup analysis of the age of the patients demonstrated that the younger (≤50) age groups showed superior pain relief with cervical TRFA in both the 1 st and 2 nd FU time points, with 58.36% and 53.46% reduction in NRS, respectively.Conclusion: TRFA is an effective and safe procedure for the treatment of cervical facet-related pain in the early (<2 months) and intermediate terms (2-6 months).There was partial recurrence of pain in the long term (>6 months) in all age groups.