Intradiscal Biacuplasty Helps Lumbar Pain

Surgery appears to work better than conventional medical management to treat discogenic lumbar back pain, a team reported at the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians meeting in Orlando, FL.

In a study presented at the meeting April 11, Mehul Desai, MD, MPH and colleagues at George Washington University Hospital, Washington, DC; Bloomington, IL; the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH; Arlington, TX; Orlando, FL; and the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA, evaluated the efficacy of intradiscal biacuplasty.

Patients who had the surgery and controls were rated on standard pain scales, physical functioning scales, a depression inventory, patients’ global impression of change, and health-related quality of life.

The assessments were done at intervals of 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months.

They found that pain was reduced by 2.4 points on the VAS score in those who had surgery versus .56 points in those who had conventional treatment.

The proportion of treatment responders was substantially greater in the surgery group (50% vs. 18%)

In addition, patients who had surgery had better improvements in depression and quality of life than those getting medications.

There were no significant differences in opioid use in the 2 groups, the team said.

The investigators, with one exception, are consultants for Halyard Health, Inc. (formerly Kimberly-Clark Health Care.)