Quantitative sensory phenotyping in chronic neuropathic pain patients treated with unilateral L4-dorsal root ganglion stimulation

Journal of Translational Medicine

Shafqat R. Chaudhry¹  Klemens Winder²  Christian Maihöfner³  Michael Buchfelder⁴  Andreas Stadlbauer⁴  Sajjad Muhammad⁵  Nico von Willebrand⁶  Thomas Randau⁷  Sascha Gravius⁸  Nadine Gravius⁸  Thomas L. Yearwood⁹  Thomas Kinfe^1,10  Walter Magerl^1,11 

[1] Department of Basic Medical Sciences Shifa College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shifa Tameer-E-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan;Department of Neurology, Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany;Department of Neurology, Hospital Fürth, Fürth, Germany;Department of Neurosurgery, Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany;Department of Neurosurgery, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany;Department of Neurosurgery, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn, Germany;Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University Bonn, Bonn, Germany;Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Mannheim, University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany;Department of Pain Management, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, UK;Division of Functional Neurosurgery and Stereotaxy, Department of Neurosurgery, Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054, Erlangen, Germany;Institute of Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany;

关键词: Dorsal root ganglion stimulation;    Complex regional pain syndrome;    Sensory quantitative testing;    Objective measures for neurostimulation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12967-020-02566-8

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn a previous study, we reported that selective dorsal root ganglion stimulation (DRGSTIM) at DRG level L4 promoted a favorable outcome for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) patients along with DRGSTIM-related changes of inflammatory biomarkers in blood and saliva. The impact on somatosensation is largely unknown. Herein, we assessed the quantitative sensory profile to quantify L4-DRGSTIM effects in CRPS patients.MethodsTwelve refractory CRPS patients (4 female; 8 male; mean age 69 ± 9 years) received standardized quantitative sensory testing (QST) protocol at baseline and after 3 months of unilateral L4-DRGSTIM assessing nociceptive and non-nociceptive thermal and mechanical sensitivity of the knee affected by CRPS and the contralateral non-painful knee area.ResultsAt baseline, CRPS subjects showed significantly increased thresholds for warmth, tactile and vibration detection (WDT, MDT and VDT) and exaggerated pain summation (WUR). After 3 months of unilateral L4-DRGSTIM all pain parameters exhibited trends towards normalization of sensitivity accumulating to a significant overall normalization for pain sensitivity (effect size: 0.91, p < 0.01), while with the one exception of WDT all non-nociceptive QST parameters remained unchanged. Overall change of non-nociceptive detection was negligible (effect size: 0.25, p > 0.40). Notably, reduction of pain summation (WUR) correlated significantly with pain reduction after 3 months of L4-DRGSTIM.ConclusionsSelective L4-DRGSTIM lowered ongoing pain in CRPS patients and evoked significant normalization in the pain domain of the somatosensory profile. Thermoreception and mechanoreception remained unchanged. However, larger randomized, sham-controlled trials are highly warranted to shed more light on effects and mechanisms of dorsal root ganglion stimulation on quantitative sensory characteristics.The study protocol was registered at the 15.11.2016 on German Register for Clinical Trials (DRKS ID 00011267).https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00011267

【 授权许可】

CC BY