Business & Tech

West Bloomfield Clinic Selected for Low Back Pain Study

Michigan Orthopaedic Institute is seeking patients for a study to determine the effectiveness of a new treatment.

Michigan Orthopaedic Institute in West Bloomfield is participating in a pivotal clinical study aimed at establishing whether the investigational medical device, Intracept® Basivertebral Nerve Ablation Procedure, a minimally invasive radio frequency ablation therapy can offer hope and relief for patients suffering from chronic axial low back pain.

According to the Institute of Medicine, low back pain is the most prevalent and expensive non-lethal medical condition in the United States affecting about 100 million American adults—more than the total affected by heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. 

Every year, almost 2 million of the approximately 12 million new patients seeking back pain treatment fail to respond to conservative therapies and have few options. What many people suffering from chronic back pain may not know is that the little-known basivertebral nerve, located within the bones of the vertebrae, may be the underlying cause of their pain.

Now, researchers have begun to look at this nerve as a possible leading contributor to back-related pain and explore how disabling it may offer patients a new pain-reducing treatment option.  

The Surgical Multi-center Assessment of RF Ablation for the Treatment of Vertebrogenic Back Pain (SMART) Trial, study is taking a closer look at the basivertebral nerve and the potential benefits of treating pain that may be caused by this nerve. The minimally invasive therapy uses radiofrequency energy delivered through a small access tube into the vertebral body to ablate (destroy with heat) the basiverterbal nerve.
        
“Chronic low back pain can be debilitating for sufferers, significantly affecting their ability to participate in normal, everyday activities and impacting their overall quality of life. For the millions of patients who don’t respond to conventional treatment, remaining options are limited,” said Lawrence Kurz, MD at Michigan Orthopaedic Institute. “The discovery of the basiverterbal nerve’s role in chronic axial low back pain and the ability for radio frequency ablation therapy to render the nerve ineffective may represent a significant advancement in the evolution of minimally invasive treatment. Michigan Orthopaedic Institute was selected to participate in the SMART study because of our extensive experience treating patients who suffer from chronic low back pain and we look forward to contributing to this important research.”

To qualify, patients must meet eligibility criteria:

  • male or female between the age of 25 and 70;
  • have at least six months of chronic axial lumbar pain;
  • have failed to respond to at least six months of non-operative conservative management;
  • have no previous surgery performed on the lumbar spine 
For information, visit smartclinicalstudy.com, or call 1-888-978-8396.


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