BALTIMORE, Md. -- Late last year, President Obama spent an additional $50 billion to stimulate the economy. Records show Americans spend that much money each year to soothe lower back pain. The good news an outpatient-based solution may now be available.

Barbara Koscielski loves the library, but until now she couldn’t sit and read to save her life.

"Things that people take for granted, I couldn’t do," Koscielski said. "I couldn’t walk down to the end of the block."

Pain sprouted in her lower back, her "sacroiliac” joint where the base of the spine meets the pelvis. When pain injections didn’t work, she considered surgery.

Eight-five percent of all American adults suffer from back pain, with up to 20 percent victims of sacroiliac pain, Ivanhoe reported.

Doctor David Maine tried a new procedure called RFA, or radio-frequency ablation on Koscielski.

"What we’re basically trying to do is take away the sensory nervous system supply to that joint," said Maine of the Center for Interventional Pain Medicine at Mercy Medical Center.

In the procedure, a six-inch probe is heated to 176 degrees. It's then inserted through a small incision, it disrupts sensory nerves going into the joint. No nerves, no pain.

"At 80 degrees Celsius we think that we have a complete de-nervation, or destruction of those nerves," Dr. Maine explained.

Studies show one month after the procedure, 79 percent of patients had pain relief. Only 66 percent of people found relief with pain-killing injections.

"I could tell within a few days that that initial pain was gone," Koscielski said.

Koscielski was out of the hospital the same day, back moving within two more. The best part of being up-right again? Sitting down with a good book.

"It was a really good feeling, very nice," Koscielski said.

This past year marked the first time radiofrequency ablation was ever used on sacroiliac pain patients. People who don't respond to pain shots and physical therapy are typically eligible for this procedure.

Learn more about the procedure.