Electrothermal Therapy for Back Pain

A new intradiscal treatment that delivers heat with pinpoint accuracy to relieve severe back pain was shown to relieve pain by 75% in a study conducted by The Cleveland Clinic Foundation (OH, USA) and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) in New Orleans (LA, USA).

The treatment, called intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET), is used to apply heat internally directly on the ring surrounding the nucleus of a ruptured disk. The heat softens and shrinks the collagen tissue, curbs the release of irritating substances, and destroys the surrounding pain receptors. The procedure takes about 45 minutes. Using x-ray, a pain management specialist guides a needle into the affected disk and then navigates a treatment wire through the needle into the ring surrounding the center of the disk. The wire is heated gradually for about 17 minutes using an external generator. The procedure is then followed by a rehabilitation program for 8-12 weeks. In the study, most patients experienced significant pain relief after two to three months and remained relatively pain-free thereafter.

"We plan to follow patients for at least two years after treatment,” said Dr. Nagy Mekhail, anesthesiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. "We want to know how this treatment compares to surgery. Do we improve the quality of life long-term?”




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