A 28-year-old woman from Bangladesh underwent a CT-guided minimally invasive neurosurgical procedure for chronic pain in a city hospital recently. The patient had severe pain on the left side of the nape of neck and head.
Doctors at MGM Healthcare diagnosed that the pain was emanating from the left cervical C2 Dorsal root ganglion, a press release said.
K. Sridhar, director, Institute of Neurosciences and Spinal Disorder of the hospital, said in occipital neuralgia, the pain can be relieved in 90% of patients through medication.
“This patient had excruciating pain for seven to eight years and she was unable to do her daily work. She had exhausted all options provided by medication and we needed to do an intervention,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Interventional radiologists planned for a CT-guided radio frequency (RF) ablation procedure. RF ablations are used for many nerve ablations for pain relief in other parts of the body such as the shoulder and knees but not for C2 Dorsal root, according to Navin Gnanasekaran, associate director, medical services, and senior consultant — radiology.
The complex anatomical location was one of the challenges as it was located close to the spine, the doctors said.
N. Arunkumar, senior consultant, radiology, and V. Ponniah, associate director, Institute of Neurosciences and Spinal Disorders, spoke.
Harish Manian, chief executive officer of the hospital, was present.
