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    Interventional procedure overview of radiofrequency ablation for palliation of painful spinal metastases

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    Safety summary

    Neural damage

    Transient neural damage related to the high temperature rise during RFA treatment was reported in 1 patient in a small study of 10 patients. This resolved 2 days after the procedure with intravenous administration of steroids (Nakatsuka 2009).

    Death

    Deaths due to systemic problems during the follow-up period (and unrelated to the procedure) were reported in 6 patients in the RFA alone group and another 6 patients in the RFA plus vertebroplasty group (Yildizhan 2021).

    Anecdotal and theoretical adverse events

    In addition to safety outcomes reported in the literature, professional experts are asked about anecdotal adverse events (events which they have heard about) and about theoretical adverse events (events which they think might possibly occur, even if they have never happened). For this procedure, professional experts listed the following anecdotal adverse events: thermal burns of spinal cord or nerve root, spinal cord or nerve compression and lung infarction. They considered that the following were theoretical adverse events: visceral damage as a result of inaccurate positioning of needle or RFA probe, adverse effects of anaesthesia and effect on pacemaker function.