Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Chemical neurolysis of the genicular nerves is a treatment option for intractable non-cancer knee pain. This scoping review synthesizes the available literature on the effectiveness, adverse effects and procedural techniques of chemical neurolysis of genicular nerves for the management of knee pain. ⋯ Chemical neurolysis of the genicular nerves is a promising treatment strategy for chronic knee pain. Interpretation of the available studies are limited by study heterogeneity and small sample sizes. High-quality randomized controlled trials are required to clarify the selection of appropriate nerve targets, choice of image guidance, and to compare with other ablative modalities.
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Radiofrequency ablation is a common non-opioid treatment to manage chronic knee pain. The inferior medial genicular nerve is conventionally targeted. It has been suggested that the infrapatellar branch(saphenous nerve) should also be targeted. There is controversy regarding the contribution of the infrapatellar branch to the innervation of the knee joint capsule. ⋯ Proposed protocol targeting the infrapatellar branch is likely to capture the inferior medial genicular consistently regardless of the anatomical variation of the infrapatellar branch.