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Neuromodulation therapy can help patients suffering from chronic pain by offering a soothing sensation in the area of pain.
FREMONT, CA: Many people might live with some degree of pain, but those with chronic pain may struggle to complete even the simplest activities of regular life, which can severely impact their quality of life. Neuromodulation can immensely reduce the discomfort for chronic pain sufferers.
The Neuromodulation devices function by providing gentle electrical impulses to the spinal cord or peripheral nerves, which reduces the pain by blocking pain signals from reaching the brain. Instead of suffering from chronic painful sensations like aching, stabbing, sharp, burning, or electric pain, the patients receive treatment that helps them feel relieved, a mild tingling, or numbness in the affected area. With this accurate technology, healthcare providers can target the exact locations of the pain.
Types of Neuromodulation
There are many types of stimulation, which differ in device location, electrical waveform, and intensity.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS)
SCS helps treat the painful sensations that the patients feel at the back, neck, legs, and arms by blocking pain at a certain level of the spinal cord. Such therapies can capture larger painful areas. In the past few years, many developments have been done in this technology, due to which today it is capable of treating various pain pathways. It also allows several neuromodulation waveforms like tonic, high-frequency, and burst stimulation to be personalized for the individual patient.
Dorsal root ganglion (DRG)
DRG neuromodulation focuses on pain in a specific location, like a chronic foot, ankle, or knee pain. The therapy is suitable for patients who already had surgery in those areas and do not want joint replacement surgery. It is also accurate for the patient who suffers from chronic abdominal pain after hernia repair surgery, chronic pelvic pain, or painful peripheral neuropathy.
Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS)
The PNS concentrates on a particular nerve for relieving the pain locally. The method can help treat post-stroke shoulder pain or nerve damage after an arm or leg injury.
Neuromodulation treatment can help to relieve several types of painful conditions, which includes,
• Post-laminectomy pain syndrome, popularly known as failed back syndrome
• Chronic pelvic and testicular pain
• Chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS) earlier known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) or causalgia
• Chronic postoperative pain after knee replacement, hip replacement, & foot/ankle surgery
• Chronic neuropathic pain-like nerve pain, sciatica, diabetic nerve pain
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