Best of Meeting Abstract: Treatment for Joint Pain Is Less Helpful for Pain but Effective for Anxiety and Sleep Disturbance

Best of Meeting Abstract: Treatment for Joint Pain Is Less Helpful for Pain but Effective for Anxiety and Sleep Disturbance

Newswise — Patients with centralized pain (fibromyalgia-like phenotype) are less likely to respond to a type of facet joint pain treatment called radiofrequency ablation (RFA), according to the results of a study from researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.

Dayaris Morffi, MD, Daniel B. Larach, MD, MTR, MA, Stephanie E. Moser, PhD, Jenna Goesling, PhD, Afton L. Hassett, PsyD, and Chad M. Brummett, MD, received a Best of Meeting Award from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine for their abstract of the study, “Medial Branch Radiofrequency Ablation Outcomes in Patients with Centralized Pain,” which will be presented on Friday, November 16, 2018, during the 17th Annual Pain Medicine Meeting in San Antonio, TX.

In the United States, facet joint interventions are the second most common pain management procedure, but RFA has had questionable effectiveness. Morffi et al.’s study explored which patient factors were associated with procedure failure in the context of centralized pain, which results from alternations of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) rather than peripheral pain. They looked at 55 patients undergoing RFA and assessed factors such as pain, mood, and function using questionnaires and determined outcomes for patients with and without centralized pain.

“The results showed that patients with centralized pain reported less improvement in overall body pain three months after RFA, but the findings were not statistically significant,” the researchers concluded. No differences were evident in change in spine pain between the groups, which suggests that for patients with centralized pain, back pain was less important to their overall pain. Patients receiving RFA also reported improvements in anxiety, physical function, catastrophizing, and sleep disturbance. 

The 17th Annual Pain Medicine Meeting will be held November 15–17, 2018, at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort in Texas. The meeting brings together a world-renowned expert faculty to share their practical experience in pain medicine; discuss novel, emerging, and standard therapies; and address challenges such as the opioid crisis and financial toxicity.