Open AccessCryoablation for the Treatment of Occipital Neuralgia
Author(s) -
Chong H. Kim,
Wayne Hu,
Jeff Gao,
Kristin Dragan,
Thomas Whealton,
Christina Julian
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pain physician
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.31
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 2150-1149
pISSN - 1533-3159
DOI - 10.36076/ppj.2015/18/e363
Subject(s) - medicine , occipital neuralgia , pain relief , cryoablation , anesthesia , retrospective cohort study , local anesthetic , surgery , neuralgia , neuropathic pain , ablation
Background: Treatment of occipital neuralgia (ON) can be complex, though many treatmentoptions exist. Cryoablation (CA) is an interventional modality that has been used successfully inchronic neuropathic conditions and is one such option.Objective: To study and evaluate the efficacy and safety of cryoablation for treatment of ON.Study Design: Retrospective evaluation.Setting: Academic university-based pain management center.Methods: All patients received local anesthetic injections for ON. Patients with greater than orequal to 50% relief and less than 2 week duration of relief were treated with CA.Results: Thirty-eight pateitns with an average age of 49.6 years were included. Of the 38 patients,20 were treated for unilateral greater ON, 10 for unilateral greater and lesser ON, and 8 for bilateralgreater ON. There were 10 men and 28 women, with an average age of 45.2 years and 51.1 years,respectively. The average relief for all local anesthetic injections was 71.2%, 58.3% for patientswho reported 50 – 74% relief (Group 1) and 82.75% for patients who reported greater than 75%relief (Group 2). The average improvement of pain relief with CA was 57.9% with an averageduration of 6.1 months overall. Group 1 reported an average of 45.2% relief for an average of4.1 months with CA. In comparison, Group 2 reported an average of 70.5% relief for 8.1 months.The percentage of relief (P = 0.007) and duration of relief (P = 0.0006) was significantly improvedin those reporting at least 75% relief of pain with local anesthetic injections (Group 2 vs Group1). Though no significance in improvement from CA was found in men, significance was seen inwomen with at least 75% benefit with local anesthetic injections in terms of duration (P = 0.03)and percentage (P = 0.001) of pain relief with CA. The average pain score prior to CA was 8 (0 –10 visual analog scale, VAS), this improved to 4.2, improvement of 3.8 following CA at 6 months(P = 0.03). Of the 38 patients, 3 (7.8%) adverse effects were seen. Two patients reported postprocedure neuritis and one was monitored for procedure-related hematoma.Limitations: Study limitations include the retrospective nature of the study. Additionally, only thepercentage of relief, pain score, and duration of relief were collected.Conclusions: CA is safe, and should be considered in patients with ON.Key words: Cryoablation, cryoanalgesia, occipital neuralgia, treatment, adverse effects