Sweet Relief: Brenda's Back Pain Disappears with Spinal Ablation Procedure

Watch Brenda share her story

“I couldn’t do anything—I couldn’t work, I couldn’t walk, could hardly drive a car,” said TriHealth patient Brenda White about the debilitating back pain she was experiencing. “I couldn’t even lift my great-granddaughter when she was four years old.”

Mainly settling in her hips just above the waist, Brenda’s back pain had moved beyond a simple annoyance that slightly impeded her day-to-day activities—at this point, it had become a true burden to her life.

“They rate a pain scale from 1-10, I stayed at 10 all the time,” she said. “Even in my sleep, I couldn’t sleep.”

Despite all this, Brenda wasn’t going to let it stop her from living her life.

“I was learning to live with it,” she said—but that’s when Dr. Sara Nashi, director of TriHealth’s pain management division and Brenda’s interventional pain specialist, stepped in.

“They had a new procedure, and Dr. Nashi wanted me to try it because she thought I was a great patient for it,” Brenda said.

The procedure that Dr. Nashi recommended is called Intracept.

“Intracept is a procedure for what we call anterior column pains,” said Dr. Nashi. She goes on to explain that anterior column pains occur in the spine and lower back and do not subside upon sitting or lying down, but also do not radiate through the legs.

“There is a nerve inside of your vertebrae that we think causes pain in people who have degeneration in their discs,” she continued. “When you ablate or burn that nerve inside the bone, they can no longer feel the sensation of the pain.”

The procedure is quick—only about 30-40 minutes and allowing patients to go home the same day with few physical restrictions beyond a gradual, weeklong reintegration into activity.

“The next day it’s just normal,” Brenda said about her back. “It was like a dream for me because I never thought it could be that good.”

Dr. Nashi says that getting back to normal is the real goal, but understands why some people might be hesitant.

“Some people are scared like ‘Am I really going to break my back and not be able to feel it?’ and I tell them no, it’s just deadening the nerves that cause the pain.”

The positives for Brenda greatly outweighed any anxiety she may have been feeling about the procedure—she’s back to her old self before the back pain.

“I can lift, I can run, I can walk, I can clean the house—if I hadn’t quit my job I’d be able to work,” she said. “If anyone is having any back pain at all, they should really see Dr. Nashi.”

The physicians with TriHealth Interventional Pain and Spine use knowledge of the physiology of pain and specialized tests for diagnosing painful conditions to treat pain with appropriate care. They also work in conjunction with the great folks at TriHealth Orthopedics, creating a seamless care experience from minor injuries to major surgeries.