ID: 208268 Treatment of Thalamic Stroke Pain With Spinal Cord Stimulation

Abstract

Post-stroke pain occurs in patients who have sustained cerebrovascular lesions of the central somatosensory nervous system and occurs in up 10% of patients.1 The pain will emerge months or even years after initial injury. Symptoms are characterized as persistent neuropathic pain with allodynia and hyperesthesia. Patient often will develop complex regional pain syndrome due to this syndrome. Treatment options include anti-convulsants, anti-depressants, deep brain stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, electrical motor cortex stimulation and spinal cord stimulation (SCS).2 SCS has been an effective in treatment of failed back surgery syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, peripheral neuropathic pain and peripheral vascular disease pain.2 To our knowledge, this is the first case to demonstrate successful pain relief in a patient with hemi-body post- thalamic stroke pain syndrome using SCS at the cervical and thoracic level spine levels.