How to treat shoulder pain using radiofrequency

Many shoulder pathologies with pain can be improved by performing a suprascapular nerve block as an adjuvant measure. This suprascapular nerve contains some fibers:

  • Sensitive: in charge of picking up the sensitivity of 70% of the glenohumeral joint, joint ligaments, subacromial bursa, rotator cuff tendons, periosteum and glenohumeral and acromioclavicular joints.
  • Motor: infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles, as well as part of the teres minor.
  • Sympathetic.

This blocking technique should be performed by a Rehabilitation/Pain specialist and can offer highly positive results, both in pain and in the joint, due to the analgesic effects produced for more than 13 weeks (in most patients).

Why does the regional nerve block improve pain?

This block is especially useful for treating acute and chronic pain for 3 reasons:

  • It manages to block the nociceptive fibers of the peripheral nerves.
  • It interrupts nociceptive stimuli at their origin.
  • It blocks afferent nerve fibers.

Likewise, the block also helps to treat other symptoms of chronic pain, interrupting the abnormal afferents of the reflex mechanisms that can originate them.

When is this technique used?

This technique is used in the treatment of painful shoulder, mainly when some of the pathological entities listed below occur:

  • Frozen shoulder
  • Complex shoulder fracture
  • Rotator cuff injury
  • Adhesive capsulitis
  • Glenohumeral arthritis secondary to inflammation or degeneration.

Once the technique has been used, the patient achieves better pain control, allowing him/her to follow a rehabilitation program aimed at improving functional capacity and recovering the biomechanics of the joint.

Read Now 👉  Number of cancer deaths in Spain decreases

How is the treatment performed?

First of all, it is an outpatient treatment with local anesthesia, minimally invasive. When the procedure begins, the patient is placed in a sitting position. The nerve is then identified ultrasonographically, using a linear ultrasound probe placed in a coronal plane over the suprascapular fossa. In the case of larger patients, a convex probe may be required.

Once the nerve is located, the specialist accesses it with a special needle connected to a radiofrequency generator, placing the active tip of the needle next to the nerve. At this time, a sensory and a motor stimulus is performed to ensure an adequate pre-treatment response.

In the last step, radiofrequency treatment is applied to the nerve for several minutes. The patient is discharged home one to half an hour after completion of the procedure.