Is The Nucleoplasty Procedure Effective For Low Back Pain?
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The majority of patients with degenerative disc problems improve without necessitating interventional procedures or spine surgery. This is an overview of the nucleoplasty for degenerative disc disease in patients dealing with back pain alone or those with back pain and radiculopathy.
Often times simply watchful waiting will allow the symptoms to improve, at other times physical therapy, phoenix chiropractic treatment, spinal decompression treatment, and other forms of aerobic exercise may improve disc symptoms.
Undergoing spinal fusion surgery to treat degenerative disc disease is used as a last resort for persons whose nonoperative treatments simply did not help. Potential complications of spinal fusion are epidural fibrosis, scar formation, failure to fuse, nerve root injury, hardware failure, infection, failure to alleviate pain, or failed back surgery syndrome.
A number of interventional procedures have been done over the last 2 decades to treat degenerative disc and lumbar disc herniations outside of open surgical techniques.
These have included nucleotomy procedures, Intra-discal electrothermal treatment (IDET), and chymopapain chemonucleolysis. None of these has achieved unequivocal success however, and some have caused nerve root injury, anaphylactic reactions, or even cauda equina syndrome.
Nucleoplasty of the disc was approved in 2000 by the FDA as a percutaneous disc decompression using coblation technology. A piece of the inner disc (the nucleus) is removed and a radiofrequency energy is applied which excites the electrolytes in this area. Molecular bonds are broken down, and some of this inner disc is dissolved.
Keeping the radiofrequency energy at relatively low temperatures, the surrounding disc tissue and end-plate cartilage is unaffected. Reducing the pressure in the center of the disc theoretically relieves the chemical and mechanical factors causing pain. How much of the disc is removed with a nucleoplasty procedure? About ten to twenty percent actually.
Numerous studies have shown new bloodflow can formulate after the procedure, and theoretically this could result in healing or disc regeneration.
Most studies have shown no significant complications related to nucleoplasty. There was soreness post procedure which resolved nicely and an incidence of numbness and tingling and potentially worse back pain.
Looking at all studies on nucleoplasty, the average successful outcome was 62%. There is considerable debate as to whether or not nucleoplasty works well in patients with solely axial low back pain and not a radicular component. The procedure has shown, however, that it can improve outcomes in individuals suffering from discogenic back pain either with or without a radicular component. There are Arizona Pain Doctors who can help with this procedure.

