Ultrasound Image Fusion: A New Strategy to Reduce X-Ray Exposure During Image Guided Pain Therapies

Many pain procedures cannot reliably be performed with a blind technique. Thus, imaging guidance is frequently mandatory, above all when the region of interest is deep and/or difficult to reach. In recent years new imaging techniques have been developed to improve diagnosis and to display greater anatomical details. Both Radiology and Pain Therapy have developed new and more accurate techniques in interventional pain, linked to a better understanding of pathophysiology and mechanisms of pain. There are many important anesthetic blocks performed under ultrasound guidance, but our experience is manly based on pudendal nerve and sacro-iliac joint infiltration.