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Knee Osteoarthritis and Its Treatments, Part 3

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By Alexander Germanis

Whether turning a dial on the stereo at home or pressing a preset button on the dashboard in the car, every time you tune in the radio, a particular frequency within the electromagnetic spectrum is being selected. Both inventors Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi discovered ways to access this spectrum wirelessly, ushering in a new era of communication for humanity.

Merely a quarter of a century later, the medical science found ways in which utilizing radio emissions might bring boons, not to communication, but to the health of the human body.

Although used for many years in other medical applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), radio waves have only recently been found to be an alternative way of treating the pain associated with the most common disease of advanced age: knee osteoarthritis.

Detailed in the earlier parts of this series, knee osteoarthritis is initially caused by a deterioration of the cartilage in the knee. However, physicians like Dr. Ricardo Vallejo are still learning more about the knee’s pain receptors — the nerves — and that is leading them to develop new ways, like radio frequency ablation (RFA), to fight the pain.

Dr. Vallejo describes the method, “Radio frequency is a system where you introduce an insulated needle in close proximity to a nerve, then you apply electrical current in such a way that the nerve heats up and you obtain numbness of this obstruction.”

According to Dr. Vallejo, although radio frequency, “has been used in the last 50 years for multiple conditions: from low back pain to patients with trigeminal neuralgia and cervical facet arthropathy, it was just in 2011 introduced for the treatment of knee pain.”

A minimally invasive outpatient procedure, RFA has only recently been put into use on the geniculate, or sharply bent, nerves of the knee for a very simple reason: “We want to make sure it is safe, but we want to make sure we can obtain the best results,” the doctor explains.

After extensive anatomical study, “We were able to locate nerves not previously ablated or where the radio frequency was not being applied,” Doctor Vallejo says. We believe this will translate into better results for our patients. We did the anatomical part, and currently, we’re doing an active research where we offer this treatment to our patients. We hope by doing that, we can get even better results.”

However, as mentioned last month, there is tremendous variability in the location of the nerves in the knee. Because of this variability, there is, as the doctor says, “one potential limitation of this technique. You may not ablate — or destroy — the nerve or even heat up the nerve because you may have the needle in where you believe is the right location; but there is so much anatomical variation in a patient that will prevent the patient to obtain relief.”

Fortunately, there is another treatment option — one that all but erases the somewhat limited scope of RFA. “Called cool radio frequency, the lesion it creates is about ten times the area that a normal radio frequency needle can obtain,” Doctor Vallejo describes. Unfortunately, this system is significantly more expensive for the patient — almost 700 dollars more expensive.”

“But,” the doctor continues, “through this research protocol, patients can be randomized to have this cool radio frequency,or have the traditional radio frequency. So one way or the other, they will be treated.“

Nevertheless, what is best for the patient is paramount. “They will be offered the option to have a treatment that may provide longer relief,” Dr. Vallejo adds. “Even if the patient, for whatever reason, doesn’t want to be part of the study or doesn’t qualify for the study, he/she still may be treated with the technique we developed based on the anatomical studies we performed.”

Next month: Details about radio frequency ablation and the conclusion to “Knee Osteoarthritis and its Treatments.” If you missed the previous articles in this series, you may read them online at HealthyCellsBN.com, or call Cheryl at 309-664-2524.

For information about this new technique to fight the pain of knee osteoarthritis, contact Millennium Pain Center at 309-662-4321, www.millenniumpaincenter.com. The office is located at 1015 S. Mercer Avenue in Bloomington. The practice provides the most advanced and comprehensive pain management for a wide variety of conditions. Drs Benyamin and Vallejo have been selected among 70 of the Best Pain Physicians in America.

Photo credit: Wavebreakmedia/iStock