Department of Anesthesiology and Pain management, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Research Article
Comparison of Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation and Genicular Nerve Blockade for the Treatment of Osteoarthritic Knee Pain: A Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Study
Author(s): Samer Khojah, Eyad Mitwali, Osama AlAhdal and Abdullah Kaki*
Background: Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative disease that can represent a source of significant pain. When
conservative therapies fail to relief the pain and surgery is not an option. Other choices like Genicular Nerve
Blockade (GNB) using a mixture of local anesthetic agents and steroids or genicular nerve ablation using a Cooled
Radio Frequency Ablation (CRFA) will be the option.
Methods: In this prospective randomized double-blind study, 41 patients with chronic osteoarthritic knee pain were
randomly assigned to either CRFA (n=21) of genicular nerves or GNB (n=20) at the superomedial, superolateral,
and inferomedial aspects of the knee. Pain status and patient function were assessed using numerical pain score and
Sfax Western Ontario McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) index respectively, at 3, 6, 9, and 1.. View more»