Pain relief following spinal lesion treatment with stereotactic radiosurgery: Clinical experience in 65 cases

This study determines the pain-reducing effect of CyberKnife radiosurgery in the treatment of spinal lesions. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the clinical outcomes of patients treated with CyberKnife radiosurgery for spinal lesions in 65 patients with 76 spinal lesions at Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, from July 2007 to May 2013. Pre- and post-treatment visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain were obtained. Results: In the benign cases, 12 patients had a pretreatment VAS score of 7 (46.2%); 12 patients, 8 (46.2%); and 2 patients, 9 (7.7%). For the posttreatment VAS scores, 10 patients had a score of 1 (38.4%); 15 patients, 2 (57.7%); and 1 patient, 4 (3.8%). In the malignant cases, 2 patients had a pretreatment VAS score of 8 (28.6%); 3 patients, 9 (42.9%); and 2 patients, 10 (28.6%). For the posttreatment VAS scores, 1 patient had a score of 2 (14.3%) and 6 patients had a score of 3 (85.7%). In the metastatic cases, 15 patients had a pretreatment VAS score of 8 (46.9%); 7 patients, 9 (21.9%); and 10 patients, 10 (31.3%). For the posttreatment VAS scores, 3 patients had a score of 1 (9.4%); 11 patients, 2 (34.4%); 16 patients, 3 (50%); and 2 patients, 4 (6.3%). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare the pre- and post-treatment VAS scores in each patient group showed significant decreases in all groups (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Conclusions: Collectively, these results show that significant pain relief without obvious adverse effects can be achieved when treating spinal lesions using stereotactic radiosurgery.