Intracept: Intercepting Low Back Pain, for Good
Who hasn't had low back pain? For some, this common condition – estimates range tens of millions of Americans experience it each year – is chronic and even debilitating.
But Yung Lee, DO , with EvergreenHealth Sport & Spine Care performs a promising, minimally-invasive treatment option you might not know about. It's called Intracept, and to hear Dr. Lee tell it in a recent Check Up Chat podcast (see below), patients can expect remarkable results.
Fifty Percent Relief: How Intracept Permanently Relieves Low Back Pain
Dr. Yung Lee discusses a novel treatment called Intracept and the relief he believes it could offer to the millions of Americans experiencing chronic low back pain.
What is Intracept?
In 2021, EvergreenHealth became the first medical center in the Pacific Northwest to start offering the outpatient Intracept procedure to patients with chronic low back pain. Unlike pain caused by sciatica, which can be treated effectively with steroid injections and surgery, relief from low back pain caused by inflammation has historically been much more elusive.
Enter Intracept.
"If you just have low back pain without sciatica," Dr. Lee said, "the treatments are very limited on what is very effective. But now we have a biomarker which we can see on an MRI that shows when patients have what's called 'modic changes,' or end plate edema, which just means the disc is failing and there's swelling within the bone itself."
To qualify for the Intracept procedure, you must have had back pain for over six months, undergone other, more-conservative treatments and exhibit good bone health.
When you meet this criteria, Dr. Lee and his team schedule a time that works for you, sedate you and insert a probe into your affected vertebrae. Dr. Lee then targets the specific nerve inside the vertebrae that is causing your low back pain and ablates it using a heated probe.
"I always tell my patients to expect to get about 50% relief," Dr. Lee said. "I've had some patients who've had back pain for many years get complete relief. It's a dramatic change in their pain and function."
Because this nerve is not connected to other systems or parts of the body, there is minimal risk with the procedure, and you can expect to return to full function the next day or very soon thereafter.
Take the Next Step
If you have been experiencing low back pain for over six months and are interested in learning more about the Intracept procedure, contact EvergreenHealth Sport & Spine Care .
