Pulsed radiofrequency PRF to the abdominal cutaneous nerve
Living with pain is something that people simply do not fully appreciate until they are actually in pain and then they really know just how debilitating it can be.
Pain has no ‘off button’ which means that it does not switch off when you are at work, making concentration difficult. It can be there from when you wake up in the morning and is still there when you are trying to sleep, but still it doesn’t go away, making sleep difficult and there is effectively no relief from pain. This is simply intolerable for some patients.
Radiofrequncy that is pulsed is a minimally invasive procedure, where a patient, is given a local anaesthetic and then the nerve or nerves that are causing pain are blasted with very short bursts of radiofrquency waves.
But unlike the traditional radiofrequency technique, there is no lasting damage to the nerves, so they are fine afterwards, they are simply ‘retuned’ in the sense that they no longer feel pain.
This makes pulsed radiofrequency a really positive outcome, because patients only undergo a very low risk procedure. It is also effective, drug free, lasts for a couple of months or so and there is no damage to the nerves, so all in all it is a very effective technique.
Patients value in particular the chance for them to control their pain without surgery and without medication, and the unpleasant side effects that medication can have!
