Cervical Dystonia Refractory to Botulinum Toxin Responding to Radiofrequency Ablation: A Case Report

A 62-year-old male diagnosed with cervical dystonia (CD) and chronic right-sided neck pain presented to the Pain Clinic after his pain and CD symptoms failed to resolve with botulinum toxin therapy. During clinical examination, right C3-C4 and C4-C5 facet arthropathy was suspected. After two sets of diagnostic right cervical, C3, C4, and C5 medial branch blocks provided >80% pain relief; cervical radiofrequency ablation (CRFA) was performed. Post CRFA, the patient was followed for 12 months. Till the last follow-up, he was not only experiencing 90% pain relief, but also had significant improvement in his CD symptoms to the point that he no longer needed botulinum toxin and other CD-related therapy. This report suggests that large-scale research is required to postulate whether CD patients, whose symptoms are refractory to botulinum toxin, should be routinely screened for cervical facet arthropathy. This is the first reported case of improvement in CD symptoms with CRFA. This effect could be explained by the fact that certain deep cervical muscles, which are affected in CD, are innervated by medial branch nerves.