Patent ID: 8108047

Claim:
An electronic pain treatment device for treating tissue of a human patient associated with pain, comprising: a main console; a first circuit in the main console and operable to measure, in a measurement mode, an impedance associated with painful innervated tissue of the human patient; a display on the main console receiving signals from the first circuit, the display providing a quantitative indication of the impedance; first and second electrodes operable to supply electrical energy to and to receive electrical energy from an area of tissue of a patient associated with pain, the first and second electrodes each including corresponding probe tips that are made of a conductive metal and that have a hemispherical tip, the first and second electrodes connecting to the main console via separate respective wired connections such that the first electrode can be positioned at different and variable locations on the patient relative to the second electrode, wherein the first electrode is movable independently of the second electrode; a treatment circuit in the main console that includes a variable wave generator that generates the electrical energy in the form of electrical waveforms of variable frequency and variable amplitude in a treatment mode by supplying the electrical energy as pulses having a fixed polarity and a variable frequency up to on the order of thousands of Hertz; a switch accessible from the main console for selectively electrically interconnecting said electrodes with said first circuit and causing thereby a quantitative measurement of the severity of pain of the innervated tissue by said first circuit in the measurement mode and for selectively interconnecting said electrodes with said treatment circuit and causing thereby the electrical waveforms to be supplied to the innervated tissue by said treatment circuit in the treatment mode; a current limiter in the main console for limiting the rate of increase of current generated by the treatment circuit to a pre-selected value; a probe connected to the first electrode; a control for varying the amplitude of the electrical waveforms generated by the treatment circuit as the treatment circuit is generating the electrical waveforms; a counter on the main console that displays an elapsed treatment time indicative of the time that the electrical waveforms are supplied to the electrodes in the treatment mode; and a monitoring system to control or monitor a use of the device, wherein the use includes the elapsed treatment time.