New Intracept relieves Mimi’s pain

This is a story about technology and trust,” says Mimi Mann, a retired sign language interpreter.

Over the past decade, Mimi’s chronic back pain had become so bad that even simple tasks were painful.

“I would dread taking a shower,” she notes. “I couldn’t stand for longer than 15 minutes, and then I’d have to sit down in a recliner and stretch way out.”

Grocery shopping was unbearable, and her husband, Jim, took over the task. Bending over even a little bit to dust was, “Really, really painful,” she says.

Before she retired, Mimi worked in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previously, she was a sign language interpreter for deaf Cornhusker football player Kenny Walker.

After her retirement six years ago, Mimi says her back pain increased, and she turned to physiatrist David Diamant, MD, of Neurological & Spinal Surgery, for help.

“We tried a series of efforts to minimize pain, such as physical therapy, medications and lumbar facet blocks, but ultimately, nothing was effective,” Dr. Diamant says.

Intracept is latest option

While Mimi’s options seemed to be shrinking, Dr. Diamant began hearing more about a new procedure called Intracept.

This is a minimally invasive outpatient procedure that relieves pain by targeting the basivertebral nerve. Through small incisions, the doctor destroys the nerve within the vertebral body by using a probe with a heating element.

Dr. Diamant was skeptical at first, “But when I looked at the data more carefully, it looked good.”

Physicians use a questionnaire called the Oswestry Disability Index to measure the level

Dr. David Diamant introduced the Intracept procedure to Lincoln. Now patients such as Mimi Mann appreciate what it can do.

New Intracept relieves Mimi’s pain

of impairment a patient is experiencing due to chronic back pain. In a study of patients who underwent Intracept, patients had an average score of 43 before the procedure, which indicates a moderate to severe disability.

“Almost half of the patients had a score that improved 75 percent or more,” says Dr. Diamant.

Because Intracept is relatively low-risk, he felt that it might be a reasonable option for some patients, including Mimi.

“For a certain subset of people with chronic back pain, their only other options are living with it, medications — which may include opioids — or spinal fusion,” he says. “With spinal fusion, it sometimes works great, but sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a major back surgery, and if you’re not happy with the outcome, there’s no turning back.”

In March of 2021, Dr. Diamant called Mimi to discuss the possibility of Intracept.

“I came in, and I asked him questions,” Mimi says. “And for some of the questions, he would say, ‘I don’t know, I’ve never done this before.’ His willingness to be that open about it made me totally trust him, because he not only shared the things he knew, but he was also very honest about the things he didn’t know.”

Immediate relief for Mimi

That May, Mimi was one of the first patients in Lincoln to have Intracept.

“Immediately, immediately, after the surgery, when I stood up, I had no pain,” she says. Initially Dr. Diamant was cautious and suggested it might be the anesthesia, but her pain never came back.

Before Mimi’s procedure, she scored a 48 on the Oswestry Disability Index. At a follow-up appointment three months later, her score was 0.

Although Dr. Diamant is excited about Mimi’s results, he is quick to point out that not everyone has had the same results. He’s had 27 patients undergo Intracept, and for Quilting, cooking, a few, it made less shopping — they’re of a difference. all pain free for Mimi

“Not every now, thanks to Dr. case has been as successful as Diamant and the Mimi’s, but the Intracept procedure. majority have had good outcomes,” he says.

Dr. Diamant says in order to be a candidate for this procedure, patients must have had chronic low back pain for more than six months, be older than 18 and have recently tried other conservative therapies, such as physical therapy, chiropractic care and medicines. Finally, an MRI must show that the patient has type 1 or type 2 modic changes, which are areas at the vertebral endplate (adjacent to the disc), that indicate those areas may be causing the pain.

Mimi still deals with pain in other parts of her body related to an autoimmune condition, but now she can grocery shop and work on quilts, and she recently directed a melodrama at a local retirement home. She’s also thankful that she has been able to start cooking again.

“It used to be that I couldn’t get through making an entire meal without having to go to my recliner several times. I had quit cooking, unless it was something really fast,” she says.

On the day of her surgery, Mimi says when she sat down afterward, she realized the pain was truly gone.

“I almost got weepy because it was the first time I hadn’t had that pain,” she says. n