• Tim Davis, Eric Loudermilk, Michael DePalma, Corey Hunter, David A Lindley, Nileshkumar Patel, Daniel Choi, Marc Soloman, Anita Gupta, Mehul Desai, Elizabeth Cook, and Leonardo Kapural.
• Orthopedic Pain Specialists, Santa Monica, California, USA.
• Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2019 Feb 16.

Background And ObjectivesAs a follow-up to the 6-month report,12 this study investigated the analgesic effect of cooled radiofrequency ablation (CRFA) in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) 12 months postintervention and its ability to provide pain relief in patients who experienced unsatisfactory effects of intra-articular steroid injection (IAS).MethodsSeventy-eight per cent (52/67) of patients originally treated with CRFA were evaluated at 12 months, while at 6 months post-IAS, 82% (58/71) of those patients crossed over to CRFA and assessed 6 months later.ResultsAt 12 months, 65% of the original CRFA group had pain reduction ≥50%, and the mean overall drop was 4.3 points (p<0.0001) on the numeric rating scale. Seventy-five per cent reported 'improved' effects. The cross-over group demonstrated improvements in pain and functional capacity (p<0.0001). No unanticipated adverse events occurred.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that analgesia following CRFA for OA knee pain could last for at least 12 months and could rescue patients who continue to experience intolerable discomfort following IAS.Clinical Trial RegistrationThe ClinicalTrials.gov registration number for this study is NCT02343003.© American Society of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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