Additional Benefit of Intraoperative Electroacupuncture in Improving Tolerance of Deep Brain Stimulation Surgical Procedure in Parkinsonian Patients.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective technique to treat patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. The surgical procedure of DBS implantation is generally performed under local anesthesia due to the need for intraoperative clinical testing. However, this procedure is long (5-7 h on average) and, therefore, the objective that the patient remains co-operative and tolerates the intervention well is a real challenge.

Comparative effect of dense-and-disperse versus non-repetitive and non-sequential frequencies in electroacupuncture-induced analgesia in a rodent model of peripheral neuropathic pain.

Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) is a complex disease that remains challenging to treat. Low-frequency dense-and-disperse (DD) electroacupuncture (EA) has been used as adjuvant therapy for neuropathic pain; however, its analgesic effect decreases as stimulation time increases, or when it is repeatedly used. We hypothesized that a new frequency parameter could improve the effectiveness of EA, and aimed to compare the efficacy and duration of the analgesic effect between classic DD-EA and non-repetitive and non-sequential frequency (random frequency (RF)-EA) in neuropathic rats.

Conventional medical attitudes to using a traditional medicine vodou-based model of pain management: survey of French dentists and the proposal of a pain model to facilitate integration.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to develop a pain management model using traditional medicine (TM) vodou healing methods; to survey a sample of French dentists to rate components of conventional and proposed TM vodou-based pain management model; and to assess the possibility of conventional, allopathic providers to integrate TM or complementary and alternative medicine concepts.

Methods: From a set of 30 fact sheets collected from TM African healers (vodou healers), main clinical concepts and terminology were extracted. Twenty vodou-based pain management concepts were collected from an interview with a TM vodou practitioner.

[Neurostimulatory treatment of neuropathic pain].

Neurostimulation of neuropathic pain is based on surgical implantation of devices for several types of neuromodulatory treatment (stimulation of the spinal cord, cortex, deep brain or thalamus, or occiput). Spinal cord stimulation is a recognized treatment, with a high level of proof. It is effective in 70 or 80% of appropriately selected cases.