Intradiscal electrothermal therapy: a preliminary report

Abstract

Internal disc disruption is a common cause of disabling low back pain in a substantial number of young, healthy adults. A clinical diagnosis of internal disruption, in absence of objective clinical findings, is convincingly established only by means of provocation discography. Intradiscal electrothermal therapy has been shown to be effective in managing chronic disabling discogenic pain. This prospective pilot outcome study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of intradiscal electrothermal annuloplasty in a series of patients with chronic functionally disabling discogenic low back pain. The results showed greater than 50% pain relief in 67% of the patients. In addition, a significant decrease in visual analog pain scores was also seen. Further, the assessment of functional status showed significant improvement with standing and walking, whereas sitting also demonstrated significant improvement in 62% of the patients, though it was not statistically significant. No complications were noted in the perioperative period or during the follow-up period. In conclusion, intradiscal electrothermal therapy is a safe and effective procedure in patients suffering with chronic functionally limiting discogenic pain who fail to respond to aggressive conservative modalities of treatments as well as interventional therapy with injections.