Retrospective Outcome Evaluation of Cervical Nucleoplasty Using Digital Infrared Thermographic Imaging

Area of Science:

• Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery
• Medical Imaging Techniques
• Pain Management

Background:

• Percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) treats cervical disc herniation.
• Current imaging like CT and MRI is expensive and lacks detailed predictive information.
• Digital infrared thermography imaging (DITI) offers a potential alternative for outcome prediction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate DITI's utility as an outcome marker post-PCN.
• To correlate changes in thermal difference (ΔTD) with visual analogue scale (ΔVAS) pain scores.
• To determine if DITI can predict treatment success after PCN.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 255 patients undergoing PCN.
• Collected demographic, clinical, and imaging data, including preoperative MRI, ΔVAS, and ΔTD.
• Evaluated outcomes up to 3 months post-procedure.

Main Results:

• Both TD and VAS scores improved significantly after PCN (p<0.05).
• Postoperative ΔTD did not correlate significantly with ΔVAS.
• Higher preoperative TD predicted worse postoperative VAS and less pain relief (ΔVAS) (p<0.05).
• PCN demonstrated a low rate of adverse effects.

Conclusions:

• Post-PCN ΔTD does not appear to reflect ΔVAS changes.
• Preoperative DITI findings are valuable for predicting VAS reduction and clinical improvement.
• DITI may serve as a cost-effective tool for assessing PCN outcomes.