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Rate ePoster

Pain and Spine Medicine

The Impact of Knee Osteoarthritis Distribution and Presence of Total Knee Replacement on the Effectiveness of Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation for the Treatment of Knee Pain

Saturday, October 25, 2025
8:00 AM - 9:15 AM MT
Location: Kiosk 10

    Poster Presenter(s)

  • MC

    Morgan Cianfichi, Other

    Undergraduate in the biology department at Oberlin College
    Oberlin College
    Portola Valley, California

    • Co-Author(s)

  • Zeinab Mohamed, PhD

    Assistant professor of Statistics and Data Science
    Oberlin College
    Avon Lake, Ohio

  • AS

    Ali Shakir, MD

    Spine & Sports Physiatrist
    Ohio Rehabilitation Center II
    Hudson, Ohio

Disclosure(s):
Zeinab Mohamed, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose
Ali Shakir, MD: No financial relationships to disclose
Background and/or Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most prevalent joint diseases with knee OA being the most common. Standard treatment of knee OA is a total knee replacement (TKR) and as not all people are candidates for surgery, genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation (GNRFA) is an effective alternative for relieving pain. This retrospective study was conducted using patient data from an outpatient clinic from those who have undergone GNRFA. Patients are those with predominantly medial OA, tricompartmental OA, and those who have undergone a TKR who continue to have chronic knee pain. A comparison of pain score reduction between groups will determine if there is a difference in efficacy.

Design: Retrospective cohort study. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the relationship between OA distribution and presence of knee replacement, and numerical pain score reduction following GNRFA between these groups.

Setting : All procedures were performed under fluoroscopic guidance in a single community-based physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic.

Participants : 30 patients who have undergone their first GNRFA between 10/01/2021 and 10/31/2024, 2 of which received treatment on both knees.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Change in self-reported numerical pain score from initial pain score before procedure and pain score 1 month following procedure.

Results: Subjects with medial compartment OA had a mean reduction in pain score following procedure of 5.36(SD=2.46). Subjects with Tri-compartment OA had a mean reduction in pain score following procedure of 4.86 (SD=2.35). Finally, subjects with prior TKR had a mean reduction in pain score following procedure of 5 (SD=3.42). The one-way ANOVA analysis examining the effect of OA distribution and prior TKR on pain reduction following GNRFA revealed no statistically significant differences between groups (F(2,29) = 0.116, p = 0.891).

Conclusions: Although GNRFA alleviates pain shown through the pain reduction scores and is an effective alternative to surgery, there is no difference between groups.