Table 17.

Cervical medial branch blocks or IA cut-off correlation with RFA outcomes

Study	Patient population	Design	Results	Comments
Cohen et al 2007 [20]	92 pts with chronic neck pain from three treatment centers who underwent RFA after a positive response to diagnostic cervical LA blocks. Positive response was defined as ≥50% pain relief lasting at least 6 months	Retrospective study	56% of pts who had at least 50% but less than 80% relief from diagnostic blocks had a successful RFA procedure compared with 58% who experienced at least 80% relief from MBB	Multicenter study using single blocks, evaluating cervical facet RFA
Burnham et al 2020 [19]	50 pts who received 80–99% vs 100% pain relief after dual cervical MBB	Cross-sectional cohort study	54% of pts in both groups reported ≥50% pain reduction	87 records were screened and 50 pts were included in the study. Follow-up was conducted by phone call at various time intervals after 6 months
Holz and Sehgal, 2016 [23]	112 pts with positive analgesic response to dual comparative MBB	Retrospective chart review	Percent pain relief after RFA was 48%. Overall analysis showed no correlation between percent or duration of pain relief after MBB and pain relief after RFA	28% underwent cervical facet interventions. Highest pain relief was in individuals who achieved 100% pain relief lasting >8 hours with lidocaine, suggesting a strong placebo response
Shin et al 2006 [285]	28 pts with positive analgesic response to dual comparative MBB	Observational	No correlation between categorical pain relief on prognostic blocks (25%, 50%, 75%, 80% and 100%) and pain relief after RFA	5 pts had whiplash injury and 1 had penetrating neck trauma. Did not target TON

IA, intra-articular; RFA, radiofrequency ablation; MBB, medial branch block; TON, third occipital nerve.