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Objectives: Due to the impact of COVID-19 epidemic, face-to-face follow-up treatments for patients with chronic pain and implanted spinal cord stimulation (SCS) devices are forced to be delayed or stopped. This has led to more follow ups being done remotely. Meanwhile, with the development of 4G/5G networks, smartphones, and novel devices, remote programming has become possible. Here, we investigated the demand and utility of remote follow-ups including remote programming for SCS for patients with chronic pain. Materials and Methods:A questionnaire including questions on demographic characteristics, pain history, postimplantation life quality, standard follow-up experience, remote follow-up, and remote programming experience was sent to patients diagnosed as chronic intractable pain and treated with SCS during January 2019 to January 2020.Results: A total of 64 participants completed the questionnaire. About 70% of participants expressed demands for remote follow-ups due to the inconvenience, high costs, and time consumption of traditional follow-up visits. Nearly 97% of participants have attempted remote follow-ups, and about 81% of participants have further tried remote programming. Approximately, 96% of them recognized the benefits. Conclusions:The remote programming was in high demand among participants. Most of the participants have tried remote follow-ups or even remote programming. The remote programming appeared to be more efficient, economic and were widely recognized among participants.

A BS TRACT: Background: Regionalized thalamic activity has been implicated in language function, and yet the effect of thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) on language-related clinical outcomes is underexplored. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if the location of stimulation within the thalamus correlates with changes in language-related neuropsychological outcomes following DBS for essential tremor. Methods: Thirty patients with essential tremor underwent comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations before and after DBS surgery targeting the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus. Changes in neuropsychological functions were evaluated. The relationships between language-related outcomes and stimulation location were assessed using both categorical and linear methods. Any significant results were further validated using linear discriminant analysis. Results: Most neuropsychological functions remained unchanged at the group level. However, outcome on a measure of verbal abstraction was significantly dependent on stimulation location along the anterior-posterior axis within the left ventral lateral thalamus, with anterior stimulation associated with reduced verbal abstraction performance. This result was supported by linear discriminant analysis, which showed that stimulation locations with improved and reduced verbal abstraction function were best separated by a vector nearly parallel to the anterior-posterior axis. No stimulation location dependence was found for verbal abstraction outcome in the right thalamus or for outcomes of other language functions in either hemisphere. Conclusion:We demonstrate an effect of thalamic DBS on verbal abstraction as a function of left thalamic topography. This finding provides clinical evidence for the lateralization and regionalization of thalamic language function that may be relevant for understanding nonmotor effects of stimulation.