PET/CT Guided Robotic Arm-assisted Pain Palliation in Chronic Nociceptive Low Backache

A surgical aseptic approach will be followed for the procedure. Local anesthesia of the skin and soft tissue at the entry site will be achieved by 1% lignocaine. A 23G lumbar puncture needle will be introduced and the real-time final placement of the needle will be confirmed with low dose CT (40 mA) fused with pre-procedure PET images. After confirming the real-time position, the local anesthetic and steroid injection (0.5ml of 0.5% Bupivacaine per joint and a total dose of 80mg of Methylprednisolone acetate divided equally based on the number of joints to be injected) will be injected intraarticularly and periarticularly around the target joint through the lumbar puncture needle. The skin entry site will be compressed manually to achieve hemostasis. The same procedure will be repeated if multiple joints are to be injected. After the procedure, patient vitals will be observed for thirty minutes in the recovery area and discharged in stable condition.