Effective Treatment of Post-Herpetic Neuropathy With Scrambler Therapy, Patient-Specific Neurocutaneous Electrical Stimulation (311-C)

Abstract

1.Recognize the incidence and severity of post-herpetic neuralgia.2.Recognize the effectiveness of patient-specific neurocutaneous electrical stimulation with Scrambler Therapy. Post-herpetic neuropathy (PHN) or post-shingles pain affects at least 7%-19% of shingles patients with increasing frequency by age. To date, no therapy has been uniformly effective in either preventing or treating PHN. Therapies such as gabapentin, tricyclic antidepressants, or pregabalin plus transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) reduce pain in about one-third of patients but have side effects and require ongoing treatment. Scrambler therapy has been effective for refractory chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy and refractory neuropathic pain. To determine the effectiveness of Scrambler Therapy on PHN. Each person was treated for 30-45 minutes as an outpatient for 10 working days. The patients in Italy were treated with Scrambler Therapy on the randomized trial, and patients in Virginia were treated on an open access trial, MCC 13098. All patients gave informed written consent and all studies were approved by the relevant ethics board. We treated 10 patients with long standing established PHN and observed a dramatic reduction in pain. The patient mean age was 54 ± SD 13 years, 6 men and 4 women, with a mean duration of PHN for 15.6 months (range, 2.5-48 months) without satisfactory relief despite conventional drugs. Average pain score rapidly diminished from 7.64 ± 1.46 at baseline to 0.42 ± 0.89 at one month, a 95% reduction, with continued relief at 2 and 3 months. Patients achieved maximum pain relief with less than 5 treatments. Most patients were able to stop or reduce their pain medicines completely. Five of 10 patients had complete disappearance of pain which has continued. As in other trials of Scrambler Therapy, no side effects were observed.