Stereotactic and functional neurosurgery
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Stereotact Funct Neurosurg · Jan 1995
A new approach to control central deafferentation pain: spinal intrathecal baclofen.
Baclofen, an agonist of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor, has antinociceptive effects, and its intrathecal administration reduces allodynic responses in animal models of neurogenic central pain. Such experimental studies lead to the hypothesis that neurogenic pain may be induced in part by functional abnormalities in spinal GABAergic systems. However, whether a GABAergic system is actually involved in human central pain is unknown. ⋯ Pinprick and light touch sensations did not change in nonaffected regions. The results indicate that dysfunction of spinal GABAergic systems plays a role in the clinical expression of central pain. In clinical situations, continuous intrathecal infusion of baclofen seems feasible for relief of central pain.
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Paresthesia-producing (PP), but not periventricular grey (PVG) deep brain stimulation (DBS) proved effective in steady neuropathic pain in 25 patients receiving both, regardless of the PP site stimulated, but PVG-DBS suppressed allodynia or hyperpathia in 3 cases of stroke-induced pain. In patients with stroke-induced central pain, PP-DBS was unpleasant in 6 of 17 (35%), all with allodynia and/or hyperpathia, but not in patients with spinal cord central or peripheral neuropathic pain with allodynia or hyperpathia. Of 11 patients in whom prior ineffective dorsal column stimulation (DCS) produced appropriate paresthesia, none responded to PP-DBS; 5 of 7 did so in whom DCS produced no paresthesia or relieved pain. Periaqueductal grey DBS was nearly always unpleasant, PVG-DBS sometimes was.