Subcutaneous Peripheral Nerve Field Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Back Pain: Patient Selection and Technical Aspects.

A wide variety of therapeutic options are available for the treatment of chronic back pain, a very common condition in Western countries with high related social and economic costs. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to achieve adequate long-term pain relief in spite of intensive analgesic therapies. Subcutaneous peripheral nerve field stimulation (sPNFS) is a newly approved neuromodulative treatment for back pain.

Unilateral deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens in patients with treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: Outcomes after one year.

Objective: To investigate the effects of unilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the right nucleus accumbens in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Predominantly bilateral stimulation of the anterior limb of the internal capsule was utilized.

Methods: The study was designed as a double-blind sham-controlled crossover study.

[Intrathecal baclofen therapy. Overdose during replacement of a medication pump].

This case report reviews the anesthesiological complications of intrathecal baclofen (ITB) therapy. An 11-year-old boy with spasticity and apallic syndrome needed general anesthesia for exchange of a baclofen pump but 2 h later he became increasingly hypothermic, hypotonic with bradycardy and dyspnea. The cause was an intra-operative bolus of ITB.

Remission of alcohol dependency following deep brain stimulation of the nucleus accumbens: valuable therapeutic implications?

Chronic consumption of alcohol represents one of the greatest health and socioeconomic problems worldwide. We report on a 54-year-old patient with a severe anxiety disorder and secondary depressive disorder in whom bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens was carried out. Despite the absence of desired improvement in his primary disorder, we observed a remarkable although not primarily intended alleviation of the patient's comorbid alcohol dependency.