Indications of the Neurotomy of Genicular Nerves by Radiofrequency for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Literature Review^[∗]

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequent and incapacitating pathologies today, especially of the knee. Among the possible approaches for knee OA, the neurotomy of the genicular nerves by radiofrequency (RF) has been gaining prominence. However, as this is a relatively new procedure, indications for its implementation are still unclear. The objective of the present review is to identify the main indications of the use of RF for the treatment of knee OA in the medical literature. A review of the literature was performed in January 2018 through a search in the PubMed, ClinicalKey and Google Scholar databases. After reviewing the main articles on the subject, it was concluded that the main indications of the use of RF for the treatment of knee OA were: OA Kellgren-Lawrence grades 3 and 4, with moderate to severe pain and failure of conservative treatment, mainly in elderly people; persistence of pain even after total knee arthroplasty (TKA); patients with an indication for TKA who refuse to undergo surgical treatment.

Keywords

neurosurgical procedures - radio waves - rhizotomy - osteoarthritis, knee - knee joint

^∗ The present work was performed at the Instituto de Traumatologia e Ortopedia Romeu Krause, Recife, PE, Brazil.

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