Award-winning MSK embolization research shows ‘higher safety profile and broader indication’

Yuji Okuno (Tokyo, Japan), winner of the Award of Excellence and Innovation in Interventional Radiology during the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) 2023 meeting, discusses his pioneering work on the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal inflammation and pain with Ziv Haskal (Charlottesville, USA), emeritus editor-in-chief (2011-2020) of Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR).

Okuno previously published research in CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology (CVIR) in 2014 examining the short-term clinical outcomes of transarterial embolization (TAE) for knee osteoarthritis using imipenem/cilastatin microspheres, which reported significant improvements in pain scores up to 12-month follow-up.

Focusing now on sports injuries in a “highly active, high-demand” cohort that is prone to overuse, Okuno states that they intended, “due to safety concerns” over the use of embolization for knee osteoarthritis including frozen shoulder syndrome and chronic lower back pain, to “develop the use of temporary embolic material” to combat inflammation and pain.