Image Guided Spine Interventions

The field of minimally invasive spine intervention continues to evolve rapidly. As image-guided spine interventions have increasingly become a primary strategy for managing back pain, the tools and capabilities available to practitioners have grown significantly. This fully revised edition of Image-Guided Spine Interventions presents the latest procedures available to physicians who perform minimally invasive spine interventions. The comprehensive text covers the fundamentals—such as spine anatomy, procedural materials, and pharmacological requirements—along with chapters devoted to key topics such as discography, percutaneous descectomy, vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty, epidural steroid injections, and autonomic nerve blocks. Additionally, three new chapters are included in the Second Edition, covering pulsed radiofrequency procedures, sacroplasty, and spinal cord stimulation. Each technique is presented in a straightforward manner that allows the reader to effectively evaluate and implement new procedures. The text is further enhanced by nearly 200 images and illustrations. Edited by Dr. John Mathis, a former president of the American Society of Spine Radiology, and Dr. Stanley Golovac, who both have clinical practices devoted solely to spine procedures and pain management, the book will be useful to all physicians dealing with back pain, including radiologists, pain anesthesiologists, spine neurosurgeons, and orthopedists. Physicians will once again find that Image-Guided Spine Interventions, 2nd Edition, is the pivotal authority on image-guided techniques for the spine. The field of minimally invasive spine intervention continues to evolve rapidly. Numerous changes and developments have been added to our tools and capabilities over the past decade. Image-Guided Spine Interventions, Second Edition, describes the v- ied and numerous tools that are available to the physicians who are involved in providing these procedures to appropriate patients. This book embraces clinical evaluation, pharmacological requirements, p- cedural recommendations, and a spectrum of procedures that will be of interest to the minimally invasive spine interventionalist. It covers a broad range of material that is presented by experts in each field, such as discography, percutaneous discectomy, vertebroplasty and balloon kyphoplasty, epidural steroid injections, selective nerve root blocks, autonomic nerve blocks, spinal stimulator implantation, and spine v- cular intervention. This book will be useful to all physicians who deal with back pain, including pain anesthesiologists, spine neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and radiologists. Both editors have clinical practices devoted solely to spine pro- dures and pain management. This rewarding area has grown rapidly, and it provides great opportunities for clinical development as well as potential to aid a very needy patient population. We sincerely hope this work will be useful in helping our colleagues – new and old – establish, grow, and refine a minimally invasive spine interventional practice.

The field of interventional radiology is constantly undergoing change, and its procedures evolve over time. There is currently tremendous pressure on our specialty, as cardiology and vascular surgery app- priate existing vascular interventions. We need to be looking constantly for new procedures that will replace this loss. In the 1980s, the int- duction of vascular access provided new procedures that included the placement of temporary venous catheters, ports, tunneled catheters, and dialysis maintenance. As a result of vascular access the number of procedures performed in some interventional labs doubled. The same revolution is occurring again with the advent of image-guided spine intervention. Five percent of the American population at any one time has back pain. This huge patient population is seeking help for this disabling and persistent problem. Image-Guided Spine Interventions describes the varied and numerous procedures that are available to the image-guided interventionist, who may provide these therapies for the spine. This book embraces clinical evaluation, pharmacological requirements, procedural recommen- tions, and a spectrum of procedures that will be of interest to the image-guided spine interventionist. It covers a broad range of ma- rial that is presented by experts in each field, including discography, intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET), percutaneous discectomy, vertebroplasty and ballon kyphoplasty, epidural steroid injections, - lective nerve root blocks and autonomic nerve blockade, diagnostic epidurography and therapeutic epidurolysis, sacroiliac and facet joint injections, implanted drug delivery systems, and epidural blood and fibrin patches for CSF leaks.