Programmed transcutaneous (tns) and central (dbs) stimulation for control of phantom limb pain and causalgia
a new method for treatment
pp. 167-178
in: Jean Siegfried, Manfred Zimmermann (eds), Phantom and stump pain, Berlin, Springer, 1981Abstract
Destructive pain surgery (exeresis of the peripheral nerves, rhizotomy, cordotomy, tractotomy) [16, 27, 28], stereotactic high frequency coagulation, or cryolesion of the specific and nonspecific sensorimotor nuclei in the posterior thalamus and medial pulvinar [6, 18, 22, 23, 35] has in the last decade been replaced more and more with the nondestructive functional stimulation methods of transcutaneous stimulation (TNS) [38], epidural dorsal column stimulation (DCS) [30, 34,40], and deep brain stimulation (DBS) [1, 15, 20, 24]. The patient determines the intensity, frequency, and duration of the stimulation. The stereotactic DBS method was introduced in Europe for the first time in 1976 by Mundinger [19] using the Medtronic system. We have since accumulated a series of 75 cases (as of September, 1980) with chronic pain and pyramidal and extrapyramidal motor disturbances.