Comparison of Thoracic versus Lumbar Gray Ramus Communicans Nerve Block in the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture.

At the Specialty Clinics of Georgia we have been evaluating the comparative efficacy of the Gray Ramus Communicans Nerve Block for the treatment of painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture. The relative frequency of Thoracic and Lumbar fractures being equal, we began to ask the question why was the utilization of the Gray Ramus Communicans Nerve Block more frequent for a lumbar vertebral compression fracture. The obvious answer was the risks associated with Thoracic placement and the resultant clinical bias. To empirically evaluate the efficacy and safety of the Gray Ramus Communicans Nerve Block in both thoracic and lumbar compression fracture we performed a retrospective analysis of 31 lumbar and 15 thoracic Gray Ramus Communicans Nerve Blocks.