TUESDAY, Feb. 23, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A procedure that uses radio waves to treat chronic low back pain provided long-lasting relief to a small group of patients, researchers report.
Called intradiscal biacuplasty (IDB), the procedure uses two water-cooled needles to blast radiofrequency energy at the nerve fibers within and around a spinal disc that's begun to degenerate but has not ruptured, explained lead researcher Dr. Michael Gofeld.
"Basically you're destroying the nerve fibers, which will lead to the elimination of pain," he said. Gofeld is a chronic pain management specialist at St. Michael's Hospital and Women's College Hospital in Toronto.
