BACKGROUND
 
Knee pain is a common pain, most often caused by osteoarthritis. Total knee replacement is generally effective, but for those patients with surgery contraindications or surgery failure other options for pain relief should be provided.
Radiofrequency (RF) ablation of geniculary nerves has become popular as an alternative treatment in such cases. We present the results within the first year of performance of this technique in our hospital.

METHODS
 
Data review and collection from electronic medical histories of all patients undergoing geniculary RF september 2017- september 2018.

RESULTS
 
Our analysis involved 19 procedures from 14 patients, 5 of which received bilateral treatment. Average age was 67,8 ±10,9: 81,8% women and 18,2% men.
The most frequent diagnosis was osteoarthritis (63,6%), followed by postoperative pain (18,2), non-specific articulary pain and osteoporosis (9,1% each). 81% of the patients complained of moderate to severe pain in other locations. All patients were receiving different types of analgesic therapies at the time of study.

During the follow-up period, 9 patients (64.3%) reported pain relief in one or both knees. The average relief lasting was 3.56±2.6 months. Only 3 patients (21,4%) reduced analgesic doses of their regular medication after genicular RF.


CONCLUSIONS
 
Genicular RF is an effective alternative for severe chronic knee pain in cases when surgery is not indicated or has failed.
Its limited impact on the analgesic consumption might be explained by the high prevalence of pain in other locations.

GENICULAR NERVES RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION FOR CHRONIC KNEE PAIN TREATMENT. EVALUATION OF FIRST YEAR OUTCOMES IN A DISTRICT HOSPITAL