Periradicular therapy (PRT)
Bad posture, dysfunctions of the facet joints, osteoarthritis and spinal disc degeneration can lead to inflammations of the spine and severe back pain. A vicious circle is created when the inflammation and pain in turn leads to bad posture. Physiotherapy alone is insufficient in many cases.
One effective way of treating this kind of back pain and putting an end to this vicious circle is the so-called periradicular therapy (PRT). In this therapy, with image control and following a local anaesthetic, a needle is placed as closely as possible to the painful nerve root and a painkiller as well as an anti-inflammatory drug administered directly to the irritated nerve root. Many patients can be spared an operation through PRT. The procedure is performed on an outpatient basis and takes approximately 20 minutes.
A significant improvement of the symptoms up to complete pain relief usually occurs directly after the initial treatment. Sometimes the procedure has to be repeated once or twice. A common side effect of PRT is temporary muscle weakness and numbness in the leg or arm on the examination day.
The prerequisites for carrying out PRT are the elicitation of a complaint and a specific physical examination by the attending physician as well as a visualisation of the spine usually by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the cause of the complaint and to identify findings necessary for the procedure. We perform PRT both on the lumbar spine (back pain with/without spreading to buttocks/legs) as well as on the cervical spine (neck pain with/without spreading to shoulder/arm).
Bad posture, dysfunctions of the facet joints, osteoarthritis and spinal disc degeneration can lead to inflammations of the spine and severe back pain. Many patients can be spared an operation through PRT.