“He would risk losing function” Rafael Nadal’s radiofrequency surgery might be ‘too risky’
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Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has swept up his 14th Roland Garros title and has also achieved the record of the highest number of Grand Slam in men’s tennis. But this achievement didn’t come without a lot of pain and suffering for Nadal. It was revealed that Nadal used a lot of painkillers, and even pain-numbing injections to inhibit the pain receptors so that he could still have movement on the court.
Nadal’s chronic foot injury, the Muller-Weiss syndrome was kept in check using this method the whole tournament. He has also revealed that he would undergo a radiofrequency ablation treatment which targets and destroys the nerve fibers which act as pain carriers between the brain and foot. There are opposing schools of thought on whether Nadal should really undertake such an extreme and risky procedure just to prolong his career for a few more years.
Some doctors think that it is too risky for one of the best in the tennis world to undergo the procedure, especially since it has not been tested successfully on how it affects people with such degenerative diseases. It would also mean a lot of risks because a slight misstep would leave Nadal without motor functions in that foot as well.
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Rafael Nadal would get some more time on the tour if the procedure goes successfully.
Nadal is not in a good shape if the pain keeps continuing and he would soon have to consider retiring, but to prolong his career, he has decided to undergo the radiofrequency procedure. Dr. Thomas Haag, a pain management specialist, termed the procedure extremely risky. He said:
“[The nerves in the affected area of Nadal’s foot] have got sensory as well as motor function. So destroying these nerves using thermal RF would mean that he would risk losing function and I very much doubt that anyone would want to offer this sort of treatment to him. If Nadal knocked at my door I would say that to treat these nerves safely I would do pulsed radiofrequency treatment only – which uses lower temperatures to suppress pain, and has had mixed results, but does not destroy the nerve.”
The doctor working on Nadal’s foot with the radiofrequency procedure, Dr. Ralph Rogers, a regenerative orthopedics and sports medicine consultant was positive about the effects of the procedure. He said: “I don’t think it’s risky doing radiofrequency ablation on this condition, because it’s not aggressive,” he said. “You’re only scrambling the nerve [signals], you’re not destroying the nerve. It is not rocket science, I’ve been doing it for years. It is minimally invasive, non-surgical, it can last, you can repeat it. If it works you may get six or 12 months of pain relief.”
However, both have agreed that if done successfully, it would certainly increase Nadal’s longevity on the court as he would have little to no pain in the foot. Nadal would have proceeded to undertake a risky operation after a good deal of thought and consultation and if he believes that he should continue playing professionally and this is the only way, we hope it goes well for the iconic athlete.
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)