New Treatment Option for Low Back Pain Makes Headlines

Millions of Americans suffer from a specific type of low back pain called vertebrogenic pain. It’s caused by damage to a part of the spine that’s linked to a pain-signaling nerve called the basivertebral nerve, or BVN. Traditional treatment options for patients with vertebrogenic pain have been limited and not always effective. But a new minimally invasive procedure offers an alternative. With BVN nerve ablation, the surgeon inserts an instrument into the vertebrae and ablates, or burns, the pain-transmitting nerve within the spine. Kevin Barrette, MD, an interventional pain medicine specialist with Scripps Clinic, explained the procedure with Ivanhoe Broadcast News.