What is Musculo-Skeletal Embolization(MSKE)?
'Musculoskeletal' is medical term encompassing anything to do with muscles, bones, joints, and tendons.
'Embolization' is a minimally invasive way of blocking blood vessels in the body that has been established for over 50 years in the treatment of a wide range of conditions such as uterine fibroids, bleeding after trauma, some cancers and prostate enlargement.
MSKE uses the embolization technique to block the tiny abnormal blood vessels causing joint and tendon pain, also killing off the tiny pain nerve fibres. This treats the body's abnormal reaction to injury and breaks the cycle of recurrent pain.
The MSKE technique has been pioneered since 2009 by Dr Yuji Okuno in Tokyo, Japan. Since 2014 over 3000 MSKE procedures have been performed in Dr Okuno's clinics, the technique has also been taken up in centres in Australia, North America, Korea, France, UK, Spain and The Netherlands.
MSKE is performed under local anaesthetic and twilight sedation, so a general anaesthetic is not needed.
The whole procedure is performed through a tiny 2mm nick in the skin overlying the groin or wrist. Ultrasound and high resolution low-dose real-time X-ray imaging are used to accurately guide the embolization.
During the MSKE, a tiny tube called a microcatheter is manipulated from the skin entry point to the arteries supplying the joint or tendon. A dye that shows up on X-rays is injected to identify all the areas of abnormal blood vessel which are causing the pain.
Following this, the tiny particles are carefully infused through the microcatheter. The particles flow with the blood down the artery and block the tiny abnormal tiny vessels.
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