Peripheral Nerve Stimulation or Is It Peripheral Subcutaneous Field Stimulation; What Is in a Moniker?

Abstract

More than 30 years have passed since Shealy ( 1. Shealy CN Mortimer JT Reswick JB Electrical inhibition of pain by stimulation of the dorsal columns: preliminary clinical report. Anesth Analg. 1967; 46: 489-491 Crossref PubMed Google Scholar ) implanted a subdural bipole (dorsal column stimulator) for the management of cancer pain. The development of this technique, then called dorsal column stimulation (DCS) and now called spinal cord stimulation (SCS), was foundational to the present day field of neuromodulation for pain, which includes stimulation of various parts of the nervous system as well as targeted drug delivery or implantable drug delivery systems. Since this seminal event of Shealy, we have seen advances in stimulation technology ( 2. Oakley J Varga C Krames E Bradley K. Real-time paresthesia steering using continuous electrical field adjustment. Part I: intraoperative performance. Neuromodulation. 2004; 7: 157-167 Crossref PubMed Scopus (20) Google Scholar , 3. Bradley K. The technology: the anatomy of a spinal cord and nerve root stimulator: the lead and the power source. Pain Med. 2006; 7: 27-34 Crossref Scopus (35) Google Scholar , 4. Manola L Holsheimer J Veltink PH Technical performance of percutaneous leads for spinal cord stimulation: a modeling study. Neuromodulation. 2005; 8: 88-99 Crossref PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar , 5. Aló KM Yland MJ Charnov JH Redko V. Multiple program spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of chronic pain: follow-up of multiple program SCS. Neuromodulation. 1999; 2: 266-272 Crossref PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar , 6. Oakley JC, Krames E, Weiner R, Grandhe V, Moffitt M, Bradley K. Bilateral current fractionalization in spinal cord stimulation. Abstracts of the Ninth Meeting of the North American Neuromodulation Society, November 10–12, 2005, Washington, DC Google Scholar ) and expansion of its indications from stimulation of the spinal cord for cancer pain to stimulation for neuropathic pain syndromes, such as failed back surgery syndrome, radiculopathies, peripheral neuropathies, complex regional pain syndrome, and peripheral nerve injury; ischemic pain syndromes, such as peripheral vascular diseases and refractory angina pectoris; seizure disorder; movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, and dystonia; psychologic diseases, such as major treatment resistant depression, Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive compulsive disorder; organ functional disorders, such as disorders of cardiac rhythm and function, bladder dysfunction (urge incontinence and frequency), and dysmotility disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (gastric/colonic stimulation); and for visceral painful disorders ( 7. Benabid AL Benazzouz A Hoffmann D Limousin P Krack P Pollak P. Long-term electrical inhibition of deep brain targets in movement disorders. Mov Disord. 1998; 13: 119-125 PubMed Google Scholar , 8. Barolat G. Current status of epidural spinal cord stimulation. Neurosurg Q. 1995; 5: 98-124 Crossref Scopus (60) Google Scholar , 9. Bosch JL Groen J. Sacral (S3) segmental nerve stimulation as a treatment for urge incontinence in patients with detrusor instability: results of chronic electrical stimulation using an implantable neural prosthesis. J Urol. 1995; 154: 504-507 Crossref PubMed Scopus (192) Google Scholar , 10. George MS Sackeim HA Rush AJ et al. Vagus nerve stimulation: a new tool for brain research and therapy. Biol Psychiatry. 2000; 47: 287-295 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (342) Google Scholar , 11. Nguyen JP Lefaucheur JP Decq P et al. Chronic motor cortex stimulation in the treatment of central and neuropathic pain: correlations between clinical, electrophysiological and anatomical data. Pain. 1999; 82: 245-251 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (333) Google Scholar , 12. Khan YN Raza SS Khan EA Spinal cord stimulation in visceral pathologies. Pain Med. 2006; 7: 121-127 Crossref Scopus (15) Google Scholar , 13. Khan Y Raza S Khan E. Application of spinal cord stimulation for the treatment of abdominal visceral pain syndromes. Neuromodulation. 2005; 8: 16-29 Crossref Scopus (86) Google Scholar , 14. Krames E Mousad DG Spinal cord stimulation reverses pain and diarrheal episodes of irritable bowel syndrome: a case report. Neuromodulation. 2004; 7: 82-88 Crossref PubMed Scopus (63) Google Scholar ).