Clinical Experiences on the Effect of Scrambler Therapy for Patients with Postherpetic Neuralgia
A 75-year-old woman visited our pain clinic with pain around the right T5 dermatome, which started 16 months ago. She suffered from constant dull aching pain along with intermittent electric shock-like pain. She was diagnosed with PHN and began to take oral medications including pregabalin 75 mg twice a day, andnortriptyline 25 mg before sleep in our clinic. She was also being treated for Parkinson's disease. She did not want any further medication and invasive procedures. Thus, we treated her conservatively with local intralesional injection, laser therapy and so on. However, her symptoms became aggravated and the VAS score was 6/10. With the patient's informed consent, we started the Scrambler Therapy with a 50-minute daily treatment for 10 consecutive days. At the beginning, the VAS score was 6/10 and T-PRI on the SF-MPQ was 22/45. After the third treatment, the VAS score was 3/10 and T-PRI on the SF-MPQ was 7/45. Moreover, she reported that the electric shock-like pain decreased to a tolerable range. On the last day, the VAS score was 2/10 and T-PRI on the SF-MPQ was 3/45. In addition, the electric shock-like pain disappeared completely. From that day, the VAS score was maintained within the range of 2-3 for the next 2 weeks. Four weeks later, at the patient's follow-up visit, the VAS score was 3.