Radio frequency treatment at Torrecardenas Hospital

SOME hundred patients at Almeria City’s Torrecardenas Hospital have benefitted from chronic pain radio frequency treatment since its introduction in January last year.

The new treatment, which is indicated for patients suffering from neuropathic pain that does not respond to conventional treatment with pain killers and antidepressants, reduces pain by half or more in 70 per cent of patients and is especially suitable for trigeminal neuralgia, which can cause intense facial pain, as well as spinal cord and shoulder pain, some types of headaches and even whiplash.

Torrecardenas Hospital Surgical Block Coordinator as well as anaesthetist Jose Santiago explained that it is a minimally-invasive technique in which “a current is applied to the patient by means of two electrodes, generating heat at the area to treat, which ultimately reaches the nerve that carries the pain information, bettering the patients’ quality of life compared to other treatments.”