Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Pulsed radiofrequency stimulation at the dorsal root ganglion is used for treatment of radicular pain; however, its mechanism for neuropathic pain treatment has not been fully elucidated. Here, we investigated whether pulsed radiofrequency stimulation affects the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors, which play a critical role in synaptic plasticity. ⋯ Our results demonstrated that pulsed radiofrequency stimulation affected the synaptic plasticity corresponding to long-term depression. Thus, we show that long-term depression from pulsed radiofrequency stimulation is associated with analgesic effects in the radicular neuropathic pain model following peripheral inflammation.