"Lighting-up" the spinal cord for pain relief

Commonly whenever surgery does not work out and nerve fibres are damaged, a spinal cord stimulator is proposed to patients for pain relief. These types of stimulators are actually similar to the pacer makers used to keep the heart in tempo. However rather than attaching the device to your heart, the device is connected to the dorsal column of the spinal cord. This element of the spinal cord, the dorsal column, is best-known to transmit vibration and joint position feelings coming from the periphery of the body to the brain. It has a quite interesting property. Whenever the posterior part of the spinal cord is active, it behaves just like a brake or gate and hinders other kinds of feelings from traveling upward to the cerebral cortex. Most importantly, activation of the dorsal column is linked with inhibition of pain impulses traveling from the body to the brain. So whenever these tracks are activated by the implanted stimulator, pain is reduced or eradicated.

For individuals that fail to react to drugs or especially surgical treatment, dorsal column activation can be a blessing providing alleviation from chronic pain. Regrettably, to implant a stimulator necessitates medical procedures and all of the complications associated with it. Occasionally the device doesn't work or scar tissue deposits itself near the implanted electrodes. Sometimes the affected individual will develop an infection. On rare instances the unit or the electrodes will need to be removed. Other adverse occurrences associated to this technique have been reported, fortunately they are also rare. Yet another downside to implantation of a spinal stimulation device is the fee. Surgical procedures and its related costs is expensive.

All this may perhaps be changing however. Brand new studies by scientists in Italy suggest that it may be possible to activate the dorsal columns of the spine and prevent suffering without having surgery and its potential complications. It uses a unique type of electronic current that has been shown to switch on the spinal cord and block out pain whenever properly positioned over the skin covering the lower back. Despite the fact that this type of stimulation has been around for years, until just lately its influences on the spinal cord and the dorsal columns has never been studied. Applying a specialized test called a functional MRI, scientists document that the spinal cord can without a doubt be triggered without requiring implanting an electrode. The technique is referred to as trans-cutaneous direct spinal cord stimulation. Early results using this strategy to help severe pain patients have been very favorable.

Another approach of activating the dorsal columns of the spinal cord without having surgery is to apply vibration to the body. Once again using specialized functional MRIs, scientists from Canada were able to demonstrate activation of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord in reaction to vibration. Accurately employed vibro-tactile stimulation was found to "light-up" the dorsal columns in a remarkably precise way. This implies that vibration-therapy offers another potential process to stimulate the spinal cord, and obstruct pain without surgically implanting an electrode in the spine.

These are appealing research breakthroughs. They heighten the chance of blocking pain impulses from getting into the brain via non-surgical spinal cord stimulation. Due to the fact they are simple and non-invasive, they could, in concept, be applied together with the promise of greater dorsal column activity and presumably decreased pain transmission.