Presentation of relative effects regarding pain will facilitate interpretation of treatment effects
OBJECTIVE Pain is a patient-important outcome , but current reporting in r and omized controlled trials and systematic review s is often suboptimal , impeding clinical interpretation and decision making .
Interventional neurophysiology for pain control: duration of pain relief following repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor cortex
The chronic electrical stimulation of a motor cortical area corresponding to a painful region of the body , by means of surgically-implanted epidural electrodes is a vali date d therapeutical strategy to control medication-resistant neurogenic pain . Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation ( rTMS ) permits to stimulate non-invasively and precisely the motor cortex . We applied a 20-min session of rTMS of the motor cortex at 10 Hz using a ' real ' or a ' sham ' coil in a series of 14 patients with intractable pain due to thalamic stroke or trigeminal neuropathy . We studied the effects of rTMS on pain level assessed on a 0 - 10 visual analogue scale from day 1 to day 12 following the rTMS session . A significant pain decrease was observed up to 8 days after the ' real ' rTMS session . This study shows that a transient pain relief can be induced in patients suffering from chronic neurogenic pain during about the week that follows a 20-min session of 10 Hz-rTMS applied over the motor cortex
Presentation of relative effects regarding pain will facilitate interpretation of treatment effects
OBJECTIVE Pain is a patient-important outcome , but current reporting in r and omized controlled trials and systematic review s is often suboptimal , impeding clinical interpretation and decision making .