New Probe Treats Cervical Pain

Kimberly-Clark, a company known for Kleenex and Huggies, announces the launch of Cervicool, a water cooled radio-frequency system for treating pain located at the cervical facet joint. With the addition of Cervicool, Kimberly-Clark reports that it now has systems in place to treat, with cooled radiofrequency treatments, all segments of the spine from the cervical facet joint to the sacroiliac.

Cervical pain afflicts more than 44 million patients annually and about 200, 000 of them look to cervical injections for pain relief each year. Physicians report that, while these injections can provide some relief, they find that cervical pain is often difficult to treat through therapeutic nerve blocks due to nerve course variability and the difficult anatomy of the spine.

Cervicool, says Kimberly-Clark, is designed to address the unique anatomy of the cervical joints by employing water-cooled technology to provide larger lesions than standard radiofrequency. This helps address nerve path variability in the cervical spine. Company officials believe this new treatment has the potential to provide long-lasting pain relief.

In treatment, the physician inserts the sterile, single-use probe through an introducer into or near nervous tissue. Radio frequency energy heats the tissue while circulating water moderates the temperature in close proximity to the electrode or active tip. This combination creates large volume lesions without excessive heating at the electrode.

The probe includes a four foot connecting cable and tubing extension to reach out of the sterile field. These are connected to the generator and peristaltic pump unit for RF energy delivery and internal cooling. A thermocouple in the probe measures cooled electrode temperature throughout the procedure. A radiopaque marker is located at the proximal end of the active tip to define the lesion location under fluoroscopy, confirming position and enhancing visualization. Cervicool Cooled RF is available in two sizes.