Pain Management: Electrical Stimulation
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Pain Management: Electrical Stimulation
Marc Darrow (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Joint Rehabilitation Sports Medical Center, Inc. ) gives expert video advice on: When is spinal cord stimulation used?; How does TENS control pain? and more...
What is "spinal cord stimulation"?
Spinal cord stimulation is electromagnetic energy that is placed next to the spinal cord to help create analgesia. The person often feels a little buzzing or feels nothing at all, but somehow or another it actually modulates the pain that goes through the spinal cord and out of the spinal cord into the limbs.
What happens during a spinal cord stimulation procedure?
The device works by introducing a type of a wire through the skin and adjacent to the spinal cord, and what it does, by either an externally held device or an internal device that's implanted inside the skin, is send electromagnetic waves to the area that will modulate a person's pain.
When is spinal cord stimulation used?
Spinal cord stimulation is used really as a very very last resort; when a person has tried everything else that doctor knows how to do and cannot find the answer or the cure for their pain.
What is a "TENS unit"?
A TENS unit is a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator. It is a small device, much like a pager, and it can be placed anywhere on the body. You can carry it on a belt and there are electrodes that come off it that can be placed on an area of pain.
How does TENS control pain?
If I'm having neck pain use the TENS unit by placing a couple of electrodes on muscles in my neck. I can turn the dial up; increase the electricity. I'll feel tingling but I won't feel pain.
What conditions are helped by TENS?
Almost any pain condition can be helped with a TENS unit. On the other hand, TENS units do not cure pain. They're very palliative, meaning they will reduce the pain a person is feeling at that time.
Who should not use a TENS unit?
A TENS machine could be used by just about anyone who has pain. We don't want to use it on people that are either insensate (meaning they don't have sensation in an area), people who are sedated who can't tell if they're having pain from the device itself, or people that are demented; people that don't really understand what's going on and aren't able to communicate back as to what's going on from the machine.