Dorsal Root Entry Zone Lesion versus Spinal Cord Stimulation in the Management of Pain from Brachial Plexus Avulsion

García-March, G.; Sánchez-Ledesma, M.J.; Díaz, Paula García; Yagüe, L.; Anaya, J.; Gonçalves, J.; Broseta, J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-7091-8909-2_41

Cited by 39 publications

(36 citation statements)

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“…1,13,58 Motor cortex stimulation (MCS) has also been undertaken with equivocal results influencing paroxysms more than continuous pain, 2,33 and spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been reported with limited success. 15,64 No trials comparing neuromodulation treatments for BPA have been reported. A small comparative case series of 19 amputees has suggested that DBS was superior to SCS and MCS in ameliorating phantom limb pain in 60% of patients versus 32% with SCS and 20% with MCS, with 2 patients with both DBS and MCS implanted experiencing better analgesia from DBS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thalamic deep brain stimulation for neuropathic pain after amputation or brachial plexus avulsion

Pereira

Boccard

Linhares

et al. 2013

FOC

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Object Fifteen hundred patients have received deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat neuropathic pain refractory to pharmacotherapy over the last half-century, but few during the last decade. Deep brain stimulation for neuropathic pain has shown variable outcomes and gained consensus approval in Europe but not the US. This study prospectively evaluated the efficacy at 1 year of DBS for phantom limb pain after amputation, and deafferentation pain after brachial plexus avulsion (BPA), in a single-center case series. Methods Patient-reported outcome measures were collated before and after surgery, using a visual analog scale (VAS) score, 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), and University of Washington Neuropathic Pain Score (UWNPS). Results Twelve patients were treated over 29 months, receiving contralateral, ventroposterolateral sensory thalamic DBS. Five patients were amputees and 7 had BPAs, all from traumas. A postoperative trial of externalized DBS failed in 1 patient with BPA. Eleven patients proceeded to implantation and gained improvement in pain scores at 12 months. No surgical complications or stimulation side effects were noted. In the amputation group, after 12 months the mean VAS score improved by 90.0% ± 10.0% (p = 0.001), SF-36 by 57.5% ± 97.9% (p = 0.127), UWNPS by 80.4% ± 12.7% (p < 0.001), and BPI by 79.9% ± 14.7% (p < 0.001). In the BPA group, after 12 months the mean VAS score improved by 52.7% ± 30.2% (p < 0.001), SF-36 by 15.6% ± 30.5% (p = 1.000), UWNPS by 26.2% ± 40.8% (p = 0.399), and BPI by 38.4% ± 41.7% (p = 0.018). Mean DBS parameters were 2.5 V, 213 microseconds, and 25 Hz. Conclusions Deep brain stimulation demonstrated efficacy at 1 year for chronic neuropathic pain after traumatic amputation and BPA. Clinical trials that retain patients in long-term follow-up are desirable to confirm findings from prospectively assessed case series.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thalamic deep brain stimulation for neuropathic pain after amputation or brachial plexus avulsion

Pereira

Boccard

Linhares

et al. 2013

FOC

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“…In cases of failed previous dorsal root entry zone (DREZ), lesioning can provide good pain control [113]. Contrariwise, when the spinal cord stimulation failed the DREZ-otomy through radiofrequency, it yields suboptimal results [130]. Nevertheless several research groups recommend to restrict the cervical spinal cord stimulation for failed previous DREZ-otomy due to its high economical costs [25, [131][132][133].…”

Section: Neuromodulation Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment of Neuropathic Pain in Brachial Plexus Injuries

Saiz-Sapena¹,

Vanaclocha‐Vanaclocha²,

Ortiz-Criado³

et al. 2019

Treatment of Brachial Plexus Injuries

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Brachial plexus injuries are commonly followed by chronic pain, mostly with neuropathic characteristics. This is due to peripheral nerve lesions, particularly nerve root avulsions, as well as upper limb amputations, and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). The differential diagnosis between CRPS and neuropathic pain is essential as the treatment is different for each of them. Medical treatments are the first step, but for refractory cases there are two main types of surgical alternatives: ablative techniques and neuromodulation. The first group involves destruction of the posterior horn deafferented neurons and usually provides a better pain control but has a 10% complication rate. The second group provides pain control with function preservation but with limited effectiveness. Each case has to be thoroughly evaluated to apply the treatment modality best suited for it. due to iatrogenia [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], particularly during lymph node biopsy [17, 18] or treatment of some malignancies [19]. The pain is chronic [20], persistent [7], constant [21], burning [22] and throbbing [17], with paroxysmal discharges [3, 6, 23], particularly upon gentle rubbing the affected area [4].The pain is distributed in the distal areas of the upper limb, covering several dermatomes, mostly the caudal ones [24] and particularly the hand [5, 17, 23, 25]. The paroxysmal pain is felt in the arm [26]. Allodynia, hypersensitivity and electric-like discharges are present at the border between the normal and affected dermatomes [17,[26][27][28][29], particularly between T 1 and T 2 at the posterior aspect of the elbow [26].The pain severity correlates with the magnitude of the brachial plexus injury [2,3] and to the number of avulsed nerve roots [2-4, 21, 26, 30-33], particularly when the lower roots are affected [24,34,35]. Nevertheless, Bertelli et al. [21] found that in isolated C 8 and T 1 nerve root avulsions, there was no pain at all.The pain does not appear immediately after the injury but a few days later [24] and no longer than 3 months after it [5, 6, 24, 26,35,36].The neuropathic pain can be associated with phantom [37] or stump pain [38] in case of upper limb amputation, or to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) [6], inducing a complex pain condition rather difficult to control [19,30,31].Self-mutilation has been described in 5-29% of obstetric brachial plexus injury cases [39,40].The quality of life is seriously impaired with sleep disorders, family troubles, unemployment, chronic depression and social withdrawal [2, 5, 6, 17, 21,[41][42][43][44]. Additionally, the chronic pain is a further hindrance to comply with a good rehabilitation programme, impairing a possible functional recovery [6,45,46]. Among all the disabilities induced by the brachial plexus injury, the pain has been found to be the symptom that most negatively affects the quality of life [47].Treatment of this chronic pain can be troublesome, as the response to the different treatment modalities is poor and not all of them allow preservatio...

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“…Several studies show that dorsal root entry zone DREZ thermocoagulation produces excellent pain relief in the early postoperative period, but there is an increasing recurrence of pain after 6–12 months. Moreover, DREZ lesions carry a higher risk of leg paralysis (18).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1982 Broseta reported the treatment of two patients with brachial plexus avulsion pain with good results at 13 months follow‐up. In 1987, Garcia reported six cases with brachial plexus avulsion treated with SCS after a 14‐months follow‐up: two of them were pain‐free; three had a marked improvement; five had recurrence of the original pain (18). In 1994 M .J.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%