A Prospective Trial of Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation of Medial Branch Nerves Versus Facet Joint Injection of Corticosteroid for the Treatment of Lumbar Facet Syndrome
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03614793. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Chronic, non-neurogenic low back pain (CLBP) is a common condition that affects many individuals across their lives. The lumbar facet joint has been implicated as an important source of CLBP, with a prevalence of 15-45%. Elements of clinical history, physical examination, and imaging (radiographs, standard CT scan, standard MRI sequences) provide poor diagnostic specificity for pain of lumbar zygapophysial joint (Z-joint) origin. Thus, clinicians have traditionally relied upon MBN blocks to confirm or refute this diagnosis. The reference standard for the diagnosis of lumbar Z-joint pain is a positive response to dual comparative MBN blocks, which requires pain reduction of great than or equal to 80% of concordant duration to that expected of two different local anesthetics on independent occasions. Further, dual comparative MBN blocks have a high positive predictive value for determining the clinical outcome of lumbar MBN RFA for the treatment of lumbar Z-joint pain; when patients are appropriately selected using this reference standard and rigorous MBN RFA technique is implemented according to practice guidelines, studies demonstrate excellent clinical outcomes.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03614793
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 39 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 21 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Sep 30, 2018
- Primary completion
- Sep 17, 2023
- Completion
- Sep 17, 2023
- Last update posted
- Jul 15, 2024
2018 – 2023
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Utah Orthopaedic Center | Salt Lake City | Utah | 84108 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03614793, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 15, 2024 · Synced Sep 8, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03614793 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.