Articles: neuralgia.
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Chronic or neuropathic trigeminal facial pain can be challenging to treat. Neurosurgical procedures should be applied when conservative treatment fails. Neuromodulation techniques for chronic facial pain include deep brain stimulation and motor cortex stimulation, which are complex to perform. ⋯ New electrodes are implanted under general anesthesia and are subcutaneously tunneled to an infraclavicular internal pulse generator. Patients are able to turn stimulation on and off and to increase or decrease the stimulation amplitude as needed. This technique represents a minimal invasive alternative to other more invasive means of neuromodulation for trigeminal pain such as motor cortex stimulation or deep brain stimulation.
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Neuroscience letters · May 2017
Spinal dopaminergic involvement in the antihyperalgesic effect of antidepressants in a rat model of neuropathic pain.
Antidepressants such as tricyclic antidepressants, and serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors are a first-line treatment for neuropathic pain. Here, we aimed to determine the involvement of the spinal dopaminergic system in the antihyperalgesic effects of antidepressants in a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL). The right L5 spinal nerve of male Sprague-Dawley rats was ligated under inhalation anesthesia to induce hyperalgesia. ⋯ Microdialysis revealed the dopamine levels in the spinal cord were increased after intraperitoneal injection of each antidepressant (10mg/kg). Furthermore, the dopamine content in homogenized spinal cord tissue were increased at 2 weeks after SNL and then subsequently declined. Our results suggest that the effect of antidepressants against neuropathic pain is related to modulation of not only noradrenalin and serotonin but also dopamine levels in the spinal cord.
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Neuropathic pain is absent in infants and emergent years after injury. Adult spinal cord microglia play a key role in initiating neuropathic pain, and modulation of microglia is a potential target for treating neuropathic pain. In this study, we evaluated the role of microglia after infant peripheral nerve injury and the effect of exercise on the delayed-onset neuropathic pain. ⋯ Exercise shifted spinal cord microglia polarization to the M2 phenotype and reduced neuropathic pain. In addition, IL-10 increased and TNF-α decreased after exercise, and intrathecal injection of the IL-10 antibody reduced the exercise-induced analgesia. Our study found that infant nerve injury induced delayed spinal cord microglia polarization to the M1 phenotype and that exercise was effective in the treatment of delayed adolescent neuropathic pain via the modulation of microglial polarization.
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Int J Clin Pharm Th · May 2017
Effects of Danggui Sini decoction on neuropathic pain: experimental studies and clinical pharmacological significance of inhibiting glial activation and proinflammatory cytokines in the spinal cord .
Neuropathic pain responds poorly to drug treatments. Partial relief is achieved in only about half of the patients. Danggui Sini decoction (DSD), an aqueous extract of Angelica sinensis, Ramulus Cinnamomi, and Radix Puerariae, has been used extensively in China to treat inflammatory and ischemic diseases. The current study examined the putative effects of DSD on neuropathic pain. ⋯ DSD can alleviate CCI and diabetes-induced neuropathic pain, and its effectiveness might be due to the inhibition of neuroinflammation in the spinal dorsal horn. The anti-inflammation effect of DSD may be related to the suppression of spinal NF-κB activation and/or cytokines expression. .
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Pain Scrambler therapy is a patient-specific electrocutaneous nerve stimulation device. Burn pruritus is a common form of chronic and disabling neuropathic pain that is often difficult to treat effectively. Pruritus is mediated by histamines, which are effector molecules stored in mast cells and released locally during injury or inflammation. Burn pruritus may be accompanied by peripheral neuropathic pain, which may result from injury to sensory nerves that hampers conductance of neuronal messages along the large A and small C afferent fibers to the spinal cord. In this study, we investigated the effect of pain Scrambler therapy on burn scar pruritus. ⋯ Scrambler therapy is a non-invasive, non-medicinal modality that significantly reduced burn-associated pruritus. Scrambler therapy should be considered as a treatment option for burn survivors with severe pruritus.