Got lower back pain? If you haven’t had any luck with traditional therapies, you may want to try pulsed radiofrequency. A new study from Sapienza University of Rome found that this alternative technique may effectively and safely relieve acute lower back pain.
How pulsed radiofrequency helps lower back pain
The research, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America specifically looked at pulsed radiofrequency as a treatment for sciatica and disk herniation.
Disk herniation is caused by the disk’s soft center pushing through a tear, which can cause sciatic pain in the back, hip and leg.
Currently, doctors often recommend treating sciatica and herniated disks with pain medications and/or corticosteroid injections. In some cases, surgery is recommended to remove the disk and fuse the vertebra.
The new study treated 128 people with low back pain who hadn’t responded to traditional treatments with one 10-minute session and another group of 120 people with one to three sessions of steroid injections.
After treatment
After one year of treatments, the participants who received pulsed radiofrequency had not only more significant improvements in pain but also reduced disability scores than the steroid injection group.
“Pulsed radiofrequency creates a nerve modulation, significantly reducing inflammation and its associated symptoms,” says the study’s senior author, Dr. Alessandro Napoli. “Given our study results, we offer pulsed radiofrequency to patients a with herniated disk and sciatic nerve compression whose symptoms do not benefit from conservative therapy.
The study’s authors estimate that 95% of the participants who received pulsed radiofrequency were “recovered,” while only 61% of the injection group could be considered “recovered.”
Additional benefits of pulsed radiofrequency on lower back pain
One advantage to the new treatment is that it delivers quicker results. Just one 10-minute session was enough for many of the patients.
In addition, there are no side effects from the treatment.
