Radiofrequency ablation will improve the pain but will not cause loss of sensation and weakness and all the other functions of a nerve. If you have a nerve, if you have pain in your hand, you could cut the nerve to that hand, and maybe be out of pain. But you’re not going to feel anything in the hand, you’re not going to be able to move your hand. As a matter of fact, sometimes by doing that you can make the pain worse. But that’s another topic and it can cause them to degenerate, it kills those fibers without causing any damage to the motor or the sensory fibers.
The reason for that is interesting, it’s because of the myelin sheath? That patients with Multiple Sclerosis have a deficiency. If you think about an electrical cable, the myelin is the plastic around it, when you lose that, you lose protection. All of those little fibers, they have that myelin sheath, except for the pain fibers inside the nerve. The reason for that is, is because of evolution. We need to be able to feel pain. Pain fibers are the oldest in evolution.
The most primary, survival needs we have as beings in the world, is the ability to get away from harm. Like a hostile and things like that, exactly. if you think about a parasite, with one cell parasite, they don’t feel pain but they can sense something that is toxic, and they pull away. So, those fibers are so old that they never developed that sheath, that protective sheath. So, radiofrequency you can graduate it so that it will harm the fibers that don’t have protection, of the myelin and you can have the other fibers intact. So, that’s why radiofrequency ablation works so well for treating people. Call us today for more information.
(Transcript from the video, transcribed but not reviewed)