BACKGROUND: Intramuscular stimulation (IMS) shows good results in the treatment of chronic pain patients who did not respond to other treatments such as oral analgesics, trigger point injection, nerve block and epidural steroid injection. Fluoroscopy Guided Interventional Musculoskeletal Adhesiolysis and Nerve Stimulation (FIMS) was used to stimulate the correct anatomic point using fluoroscopy. We present the results of FIMS in spinal stenosis.

METHODS: 106 patients with ages ranging from 39 to 87 years were enrolled in this study. All the patients were postoperatively evaluated for the clinical outcomes such as numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain at 1 month, reduction in the analgesics dose, and the overall satisfaction rate. The patients considered to have received clinical benefit from FIMS were evaluated for the recurrence of pain by either a follow-up or telephone interview.

RESULTS: FIMS reduced the level of pain compared with the pretreatment (P < 0.001). In addition, 61% of patients reported that they were satisfied. There were no procedural related serious complications. Three months after FIMS, there was continuing pain relief in 50% of the patients treated successfully.

CONCLUSIONS: FIMS is a safe and effective treatment modality for spinal stenosis.