Your experiences with RFA (Radiofrequency Ablation)?

Looks like the majority of you who had RFA ablations did not have a positive experience. How are these things still being done?

I’ve had abalation on my neck 2xs. You feel like you have a sunburn for 6-8 weeks. The first time relief was about 2 years. The next procedure, relief was about a year. I use medical marijuana to help with my pain. It really helps.

I've had two RFA procedures on lumbar/sacral 4-5, the last one in 2017, and both worked great. They each lasted about 3 years of reduced pain. Before I have another one, Doc wants me to have an MRI since I've fallen twice since 2017. Getting the MRI done has been problematic because I have a pacemaker. Radiology requested cardiology information about my pacemaker before they would consider doing the MRI. The purpose of that is to make sure my pacemaker is "MRI ready" and won't be affected by the magnets in the MRI machine. It took forever to get that report due to communication issues with Cardiology, and then Radiology lost the MRI orders. It's been a real cluster. So, months later, I have a new MRI order, the cardiology report, and I'm in the process of scheduling the MRI.

I hope this will be successful for you.

I had it done on L4-5, L5-S1 about seven years ago. It gave me many years of relief. I just had the diagnostic injections again (the insurance required it as it had been so long) and I'm going to have the ablation in a couple of weeks. My husband has had it done yoo and it helped him.

Long story . . . . I'll make it short . . . Have been dealing with neck/spinel pain and arm pain for 3 months . . . I have been taking medicine as prescribed to deal with the pain from my shoulder/neck to my fingers that are numb. MRI, specific x-ray of the neck, CT . . . I had a spinal epidural over two weeks ago and I received little relief . . pain still at times level 10. Doctors have increased the medication. The discussion now is Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) . Has anyone had this and was the results good or just OK. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back.

Plenty here about it. First they deaden nerves to see if the offers relief. If not then don't waste more time with it.

BTW has anyone ever had epidurals in their cervical spine area?

Having this done next week, lower spine. Hope for relief. Will update with results.

Had two ablations on l4 l5. For me personally it gave local pain relief in spine but not the pain radiating down leg as that nerve couldn't be touched.

It did allow me 2 full years of on off activity before having to do fusion. Its worth a try if combined with PT.

Best if hope and healing to you.

@dsonderhouse

The pain radiating down your leg could invole the sciatic nerve or the peroneal nerve.