Clinical Experiences on the Effect of Scrambler Therapy for Patients with Postherpetic Neuralgia
A 70-year-old woman visited our pain clinic with pain in the right scapular area around the T3 dermatome, which started 34 months ago. She suffered from constant burning and throbbing pain along with intermittent electric shock-like pain. She was diagnosed with PHN and began to take several oral medications including pregabalin 150 mg- and oxycodone 10 mg -twice a day, and nortriptyline 75 mg before sleep. Additionally, she had been treated with an epidural block, pulsed radiofrequency lesioning, intravenous lidocaine and ketamine infusion, etc. However, her symptoms were gradually aggravated in spite of all this and her pain was rated at an intensity of 7/10 on the visual analogue scales (VAS) from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable). Thus, we considered the use of Scrambler Therapy for pain relief. With informed consent, we began to treat the patient (). It was programmed for a 50-minute daily treatment for 10 consecutive days. Before the Scrambler Therapy was initiated, the VAS score was 7/10 and total pain rating index (T-PRI) on the Short-Form Mcgill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) was 30/45. After the second treatment, the VAS score was 4/10 and T-PRI on the SF-MPQ was 20/45. Moreover, she reported that the electric shock-like pain decreased to a tolerable range. On the last day, the VAS score was 3/10 and T-PRI on the SF-MPQ was 19/45. In addition, the electric shock-like pain disappeared completely. During ten treatments, no side effects were reported. On the third day after the last treatment, she received one more therapeutic treatment for pain relief. From that day, the VAS score was maintained within the range of 3-4 for the next 2 weeks. Four weeks later, at the patient's follow up visit, the VAS score was 4.