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23rd Annual Meeting
February 7-10, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Annual Meeting Highlights
Supported by an educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc.



© 2006 American Academy of Pain Medicine
 


Thursday, February 8, 2007: 2:00 PM-3:30 PM
Discogenic Pain: Minimally Invasive and Surgical Solutions
Painful degenerative disc disease is costly, debilitating, and can be associated with significant lower back pain. Recently, numerous percutaneous, minimally invasive, and surgical procedures were introduced to treat discogenic pain. Some of those techniques have been shown to be ineffective or similar in effectiveness to conservative approaches. Others have shown promising results, such as artificial disc replacement, new approaches to intradiscal injections and ablation of the nerve supply to intervertebral discs, and some forms of annuloplasties. Patient selection appears to be a key determinant of therapeutic successes. This session will begin with a description of discogenic pain and controversies associated with its diagnosis. The panel will then focus on novel techniques for treatment of discogenic pain, such as thermal and radiofrequency techniques for treatment of lumbar discogenic pain, and disc injection techniques. Surgical options, such as fusion and artificial disc replacement, will be compared and discussed. The importance of patient selection in determining treatment will be emphasized.
Submitter:Leonardo Kapural
Moderator:Leonardo Kapural
2:00 PM Introductory Remarks
2:05 PM Establishing Diagnosis of Discogenic Pain
Nilesh Patel, MD
2:25 PM Clinical Value of Thermal Annuloplasty Procedures
Leonardo Kapural
2:45 PM Radiofrequency Transdiscal Annuloplasty, Intradiscal Injections and Ramus Communicans Ablation for Treatment of Discogenic Pain
Leonardo Kapural, MD
3:05 PM Lumbar disc replacement vs fusion for treatment of discogenic pain
Robert F. McLain, MD
3:25 PM Question & Answer Session
Leonardo Kapural

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