Radiofrequency, Part 1
Radiofrequency, Part 1
Title : Radiofrequency Part 1
Author : Professor Dr. M.E. Sluijter
Hardcover - 186 pages
ISBN : 3-909 441-00-9
Dimensions (in inches) : 0.95 x 9.52 x 6.40
A review of radiofrequency procedures in the lumbar region
Radiofrequency has been used for the treatment of spinal pain and other painful conditions for over 30 years now. Being a destructive form of treatment it has had advocates and opponents, but overall it has survived because despite its destructive nature it has had a great degree of safety. This resulted in a stable situation: a method with modest effectiveness, modest acceptance and acceptable safety.
Since a few years now this situation has been radically changed and radiofrequency has ended up in stormy weather. When radiofrequency is applied, heating of the needle tip is not the only event. The surrounding tissue is also exposed to a strong electric field. Electric fields do have biological effects and it is becoming more and more obvious that what we have been looking at over so many years has not been a heat effect but an electric field effect instead.
In pulsed radiofrequency the tissue is exposed to RF electric fields without raising the tip tempature to neurodestructive levels. It looks like this non-destructive method has clinical results that are comparable to or even better than those of heat radiofrequency. An increasing number of doctors world wide are now using this method exclusively with excellent results.
This is nothing less than a revolution in radiofrequency. Indications have expanded to treatment of peripheral nerves in conditions such as shoulder pain, intercostal neuralgia and stump pain, to treatment of local tender trigger points in scar tissue and to treatment of the DRG at levels that were "forbidden" for heat radiofrequency such as C8 and the sacral nerves. DRG treatment at a number of adjoining levels is now an option.
This book descibes in great detail the state of the art in pulsed radiofrequency.
Chapters include:
1.Mechanisms of pain
2.Spinal pain: anatomy, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment
3.Theoretical aspects of radiofrequency
4. Principles of radiofrequency treatment, including the various algorhythms
5. General principles of radiofrequency procedures
6.The lumbar medial branch
7.The lumbar and sacral dorsal root ganglia
8.The lumbar sympathetic chain
9.Intradiscal procedures, written by Dr. Robert Wright M.D.
10.Other applications of pulsed radiofrequency
11.New horizons: a look into the future
The author has probably more experience than anyone else in radiofrequency and related procedures. As a conservative estimate he has done over 80.000 of these procedures, ranging from diagnostic nerve blocks to percutaneous cordotomies and Gasserian ganglion procedures. He invented the SMK electrode system, a number of new applications of radiofrequency for spinal pain, the principle of heating the intervertebral disc as a treatment for discogenic pain and finally pulsed radiofrequency.
Title : Radiofrequency Part 1
Author : Professor Dr. M.E. Sluijter
Hardcover - 186 pages
ISBN : 3-909 441-00-9
Dimensions (in inches) : 0.95 x 9.52 x 6.40
A review of radiofrequency procedures in the lumbar region
Radiofrequency has been used for the treatment of spinal pain and other painful conditions for over 30 years now. Being a destructive form of treatment it has had advocates and opponents, but overall it has survived because despite its destructive nature it has had a great degree of safety. This resulted in a stable situation: a method with modest effectiveness, modest acceptance and acceptable safety.
Since a few years now this situation has been radically changed and radiofrequency has ended up in stormy weather. When radiofrequency is applied, heating of the needle tip is not the only event. The surrounding tissue is also exposed to a strong electric field. Electric fields do have biological effects and it is becoming more and more obvious that what we have been looking at over so many years has not been a heat effect but an electric field effect instead.
In pulsed radiofrequency the tissue is exposed to RF electric fields without raising the tip tempature to neurodestructive levels. It looks like this non-destructive method has clinical results that are comparable to or even better than those of heat radiofrequency. An increasing number of doctors world wide are now using this method exclusively with excellent results.
This is nothing less than a revolution in radiofrequency. Indications have expanded to treatment of peripheral nerves in conditions such as shoulder pain, intercostal neuralgia and stump pain, to treatment of local tender trigger points in scar tissue and to treatment of the DRG at levels that were "forbidden" for heat radiofrequency such as C8 and the sacral nerves. DRG treatment at a number of adjoining levels is now an option.
This book descibes in great detail the state of the art in pulsed radiofrequency.
Chapters include:
1.Mechanisms of pain
2.Spinal pain: anatomy, mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment
3.Theoretical aspects of radiofrequency
4. Principles of radiofrequency treatment, including the various algorhythms
5. General principles of radiofrequency procedures
6.The lumbar medial branch
7.The lumbar and sacral dorsal root ganglia
8.The lumbar sympathetic chain
9.Intradiscal procedures, written by Dr. Robert Wright M.D.
10.Other applications of pulsed radiofrequency
11.New horizons: a look into the future
The author has probably more experience than anyone else in radiofrequency and related procedures. As a conservative estimate he has done over 80.000 of these procedures, ranging from diagnostic nerve blocks to percutaneous cordotomies and Gasserian ganglion procedures. He invented the SMK electrode system, a number of new applications of radiofrequency for spinal pain, the principle of heating the intervertebral disc as a treatment for discogenic pain and finally pulsed radiofrequency.
