• A F Sabato, G Marineo, and A Gatti.
• Anesthesiology and Resuscitation Unit, Service of Physiopathology and Therapy of Pain, Department of Emergency, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy. sabato@med.uniroma2.it
• Minerva Anestesiol. 2005 Jul 1;71(7-8):479-82.

UnlabelledIn neuropathies there are complex reactions that modify the homeostatic equilibrium of pain system. In such a context the Scrambler Therapy (ST5) interferes with pain signal transmission, by ''mixing'' a ''non-pain'' information into the nerve fibres. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of ST5 in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The ST5 consists of a multiprocessor apparatus able to simulate 5 artificial neurons by the application of surface electrodes on skin pain areas. A total of 226 patients, all suffering from intense drug-resistant neuropathic pain, were recruited for this trial in 2004.Inclusion Criterianeuropathic pain, very high baseline visual analogue scale (VAS).Exclusion Criteriapacemaker users, neurolithic blocks or neurolesive pain control treatment. The treated neuropathic pain syndromes were: failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS), sciatic and lumbar painpost-herpetical (PHN), trigeminal neuralgia, post-surgery nerve lesion neuropathy, pudendal neuropathy, brachial plexus neuropathy, low back pain (LBP), others. The trial programme: 1 to 6 therapy sessions of 5 treatments, each one lasting 30 min. Pain intensity was evaluated using VAS before and after each treatment. The statistical significance of VAS was measured using the paired t-test. The total results show 80.09% of responders (pain relief>50%), 10.18% of partially responders (pain relief from 25% to 49%) and 9.73% of no responders (patients with pain relief<24% or VAS>3). TheConclusionsis draen that ST5 produced a statistically significant (P<0.0001) pain relief in all treated neuropathies.

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