This article presents a review of conservative therapies for plantar fasciitis pain reduction with a discussion of steroid therapy risks. The therapies reviewed include orthoses, stretching, extracorporeal shockwave, BTX-A, and corticosteroid injection/iontophoresis. These modes were included based on the availability of double blinded randomized controlled trials. We noted the following findings. Orthoses, regardless of type, can improve pain levels. Plantar stretching shows limited short-term benefit (1 month), but can reflect significant long-term improvement (10 months). Extracorporeal shockwave therapy shows equivocal benefit with some studies showing significant improvement and others showing none. Although BTX-A injections were the least studied, significant pain improvement was demonstrated in the short and long term. Steroid injection/iontophoresis showed significant improvement in the short term (1 month). Steroid therapy, when coupled with plantar stretching, can provide efficacious pain relief; however, steroid injections should be combined with ultrasound monitoring to reduce complications.

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Zygapophysial joint (z-joint) pain has long been suggested to be one of the sources of low back pain. Radiofrequency denervation of the medial branches of the dorsal rami to treat z-joint pain is an outpatient minimally invasive treatment option. There have been many short-term studies to determine the outcome of the procedure, but few long-term studies have been conducted. Our goal is to clarify whether radiofrequency denervation has any longterm clinical benefit. In this retrospective cohort study, a total of 42 patients (25 women and 17 men), with an average follow-up of 3.5 years, with clinical signs of zygapophysial joint involvement who had failed conservative treatment (pre-procedure symptom duration mean 6.03 years; range 5 months to 48 years) and had a favorable response to a diagnostic medial branch block or zygapophysial joint injection, were identified. The identified subjects underwent radiofrequency denervation at the

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