Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Reduction of Pain and Postoperative Opioids Consumption After Spine Surgery

Overview

The experience of pain derives from changes in brain excitability. Therefore, modulating the excitability of cortical areas involved in pain processing may become an attractive option in the context of multimodal analgesia during the postoperative period.

The combination of analgesic drugs acting on different mechanisms can potentiate the effects of analgesia. Moreover, the understanding of pain physiology at the molecular level supports the development of new specific drugs. Indeed, new neurophysiological models of pain processing by the brain are becoming exquisitely refined and are supported by electrophysiological and functional brain imaging studies. One of the interesting concepts that stemmed from these studies is the evidence that the experience of pain is reflected in the central nervous system by widespread activations and excitability changes within a network of interconnected cortical areas and subcortical structures. The network processing of noxious information and their limbic and emotional consequences has been termed the "pain matrix." The continuous observation of the activity and excitability changes that parallel the pain experience led to the development of a new therapeutic approach: the use of central nervous system stimulation techniques.

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