TY - JOUR
T1 - The midbrain central gray best suppresses chronic pain with electrical stimulation at very low pulse rates in two human cases
AU - Hentall, Ian D.
AU - Luca, Corneliu C.
AU - Widerstrom-Noga, Eva
AU - Vitores, Alberto
AU - Fisher, Letitia D.
AU - Martinez-Arizala, Alberto
AU - Jagid, Jonathan R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the United States Department of Defense , Spinal Cord Injury Research Program, under award number W81XWH-12-1-0559 . We are grateful for technical assistance with pain evaluation from James Adcock and Maydelis Escalona, for initial device programming by Dr. Bruno Gallo and for the excellent critical reading of the manuscript by Dr. Melissa Carballosa, all of the University of Miami. Consultations on targeting were kindly provided Drs. Alex Green and Erlick Pereira, University of Oxford (UK).
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - Deep brain stimulation in the midbrain's central gray can relieve neuropathic pain in man, but for unclear reasons sometimes fails intraoperatively or in early weeks. Here we describe continuous bilateral stimulation in the central gray of two subjects with longstanding, severe neuropathic pain from spinal cord injury. Stimulation parameters were recursively adjusted over many weeks to optimize analgesia while minimizing adverse effects. In early weeks, adjustments were made in periodic office visits; subjects later selected ad libitum at home among several blinded choices while rating pain twice daily. Both subjects received significantly better pain relief when stimulus pulse rates were low. The best relief occurred with 2 Hz cycled on for 1 s and off for 2 s. After inferior parameters were set, pain typically climbed slowly over 1-2 days; superior parameters led to both slow and fast improvements. Over many weeks of stimulation at low pulse rates, both subjects experienced significantly less interference from pain with sleep. One subject, with major pain relief, also showed less interference with social/recreational ability and mood; the other subject, despite minor pain relief, experienced a significantly positive global impression of change. Oscillopsia, the only observed complication of stimulation, disappeared at low mean pulse rates (≤3/s). These subjects' responses are not likely to be unique even if they are uncommon. Thus daily or more frequent pain assessment, combined with slower periodic adjustment of stimulation parameters that incorporate mean pulse rates about one per second, will likely improve success with this treatment.
AB - Deep brain stimulation in the midbrain's central gray can relieve neuropathic pain in man, but for unclear reasons sometimes fails intraoperatively or in early weeks. Here we describe continuous bilateral stimulation in the central gray of two subjects with longstanding, severe neuropathic pain from spinal cord injury. Stimulation parameters were recursively adjusted over many weeks to optimize analgesia while minimizing adverse effects. In early weeks, adjustments were made in periodic office visits; subjects later selected ad libitum at home among several blinded choices while rating pain twice daily. Both subjects received significantly better pain relief when stimulus pulse rates were low. The best relief occurred with 2 Hz cycled on for 1 s and off for 2 s. After inferior parameters were set, pain typically climbed slowly over 1-2 days; superior parameters led to both slow and fast improvements. Over many weeks of stimulation at low pulse rates, both subjects experienced significantly less interference from pain with sleep. One subject, with major pain relief, also showed less interference with social/recreational ability and mood; the other subject, despite minor pain relief, experienced a significantly positive global impression of change. Oscillopsia, the only observed complication of stimulation, disappeared at low mean pulse rates (≤3/s). These subjects' responses are not likely to be unique even if they are uncommon. Thus daily or more frequent pain assessment, combined with slower periodic adjustment of stimulation parameters that incorporate mean pulse rates about one per second, will likely improve success with this treatment.
KW - Deep brain stimulation
KW - Neuropathic pain
KW - Periaqueductal gray
KW - Periventricular gray
KW - Spinal cord injury
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84957635954&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84957635954&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.12.021
DO - 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.12.021
M3 - Article
C2 - 26711853
AN - SCOPUS:84957635954
VL - 1632
SP - 119
EP - 126
JO - Brain Research
JF - Brain Research
SN - 0006-8993
ER -