MR-guided Cryoablation for Treatment of Pelvic Pain

• Applicant: Dr. Sven Walter, since 5/2020
• Subject Area: Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy, Radiobiology
• Term: from 2020 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442612974

Pelvic pain syndrome, which is defined as pain in the pelvic region without an established local abnormality or infectious origin for a duration of at least 6 months, represents a subgroup of chronic pelvic pain. With a prevalence of 3.8 – 26.6% in women and 8 - 16% in men, as well as 50% following pelvic trauma and/or surgery, the burden is comparable to back pain. Typical symptoms are an increased sensibility to pain, an irregular dermal sensation, an atypical sense of touch, pain in the genital area as well as loss of muscle function due to an affected innervating nerve. However, pelvic pain syndrome is often overlooked in clinical practice. Among different treatment options, such as injection of local anesthetic and/or corticosteroids perineurally (nerve block), management with medication as well as surgery, MR-guided cryoablation may represent a valid treatment option. During this procedure the sensory nerves are exposed to freezing temperatures (- 20 to - 100° Celsius), which can result in a significant pain relief/reduction for numerous months due to long-lasting nerve blocks.The main objective of this study is to assess the technical and therapeutic success rate of MR-guided cryoablation for patients with pelvic pain syndrome over a follow up of 24 months. This way, the study will contribute to establishing the effectiveness of 3 Tesla MR neurography-guided cryoablation for the treatment of pelvic pain syndrome and aid in the implementation of this treatment option in societal and institutional guidelines and recommendations.To this end, we plan to include and treat 50 patients with pelvic pain syndrome using MR-guided cryoablation.The primary safety endpoint for this study is to assess the incidence and severity of procedure and device related adverse events as defined by the Society of Interventional Radiology practice guidelines.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Jan Fritz