Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation in painful bone metastases

Abstract

Backgraund There are different treatment for painful bone metastases (mtts), with different results. CT-guided Percutaneous Radiofrequency Ablation (CT-PRA) is one of them. The pupose of this retrospective study was to assess the initial results using this methods, focusing on pain relief, showing details of the surgical technique. Methods 18 patients with an average age of 59.2 years and 15 months follow-up were treated. Nine mtts were located in the femur, 4 dorsal / lumbar spine, 3 in scapula and 2 in Iliac. The Mtts origin were Breast Ca 7 cases, lung in 4, Kidney in 4 and 3 in Thyroid. The rachis mtts were found at more than 10mm of the medullary cavity and mtts of long bones showed low risk of fracture. Lesions >3cm were treated whit CT-PRA using Valleylab Rita needle and these <3cm with CoolTip needle. Pain was assessed by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) preoperatively, at 2, 7 and 30 days, and then at 3 and 6 months. Results Preoperative pain score was 8.33 on average. At 7 days of ablatión de VAS score was 5 on average and at 30 days was 2 points. After at 3 and 6 months de VAS average was 1. This method had excellent patients tolerance and no complications. There were two recurrences which underwent endoprosthesis unconventional proximal femur and knee respectively, evolving favorably. Conclusion CT-guided APRF impresses a promising, simple and effective tool in the treatment of painfull bone mtts, achieving excellent pain control with good tolerance by the patient.

Keywords

• Metastasis
• dolor
• ablación
• radiofrequency
• tomografía