Treatment of deafferentation pain by high-frequency intervention on the dorsal root entry zone

Abstract

From August 1980 to May 1981, high-frequency lesions of the dorsal root entry zone of the spinal cord were performed on 35 patients with chronic deafferentiation pains. Among them were 15 patients with traumatic transverse cord lesions, 5 with non-traumatic transverse lesions and 7 with cervical root tears or traumatic brachial plexus lesions, 6 with stump or phantom pain after amputation, and 1 each with sciatic paralysis or spinal arachnopathy. Treatment results were best in complete transverse lesions, cervical root avulsion and brachial plexus lesion, less so for stump or phantom pain of the lower extremities. It failed in patients with sciatic-nerve lesion and arachnopathy. Thus best results are to be expected if the method is limited to genuine deafferentiation pain.