The Clinical Efficacy of Different Durations of Suprascapular Nerve Pulsed Radiofrequency

Chronic shoulder pain due to impingement syndrome and supraspinatus tendinosis is a debilitating condition. Suprascapular nerve innervates most part of shoulder joint. Supraspinatus nerve block can be used as a part of pain therapy. However, its efficacy is short-lasting. To prolong analgesia, short bursts of electrical stimulation to suprascapular nerve may be applied. To the date there is no consensus about duration of these type of stimulation. Investigators' aim is to investigate efficacy of two different duration of stimulation (pulsed radiofrequency) on chronic shoulder pain.

Pulsed radiofrequency (pRF) treatment of suprascapular nerve can be used successfully to alleviate pain due to shoulder impingement syndrome and supraspinatus tendinosis. Radiofrequency waves produced by radiofrequency (RF) generator through pRF modality are applied to suprascapular nerve and create magnetic field. This field leads to pain modulation by changing neuronal activity and resulting in long term depression of pain transmitting nerve fibers. Temperature around nerve never exceeds 42 degree and by this way the nerve can be protected from coagulation necrosis and demiyelinisation. pRF can be used in the treatment of mixed type nerves such as suprascapular nerve. There are preclinical and clinical studies which report that with longer pRF duration, more favorable analgesia. Suprascapular pRF is performed with 22G, 10 cm, 5 mm active lead RF needle via USG guided posterior approach as institution procotol. Howeveri clinicians can choose any duration of pRF. Instution's pain medicine practitioners HAU and GEO choose 4 and 9 minutes of pRF duration, respectively. Investigators' aim is to investigate the efficacy of two different pRF duration, 4 and 9 minutes, on Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) and Numeric Rating Scale-11(NRS-11) at 3 month follow-up.