Systematic Review of Research Methods and Reporting Quality of Randomized Clinical Trials of Spinal Cord Stimulation for Pain

The use of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for the treatment of chronic pain was first described in 1967.67 Its development was based on the gate-control theory of pain, introduced a few years earlier by Melzack and Wall, who hypothesized that a “gate” in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord dictated transmission of nociception within the central nervous system.49 The hypothetical gate could be closed when stimulation of large diameter myelinated fibers associated with touch, pressure, or vibration predominated over stimulation of thinner , unmyelinated pain fibers, in turn attenuating or eliminating noxious signaling to the brain.

Source: The Journal of Pain - June 19, 2020 Category: Materials Science Authors: Ewan McNicol, McKenzie Ferguson, Kathleen Bungay, Emily L. Rowe, Sam Eldabe, Jennifer S. Gewandter, Salim M. Hayek, Nathaniel Katz, Brian H. Kopell, John Markman, Ali Rezai, Rod S. Taylor, Dennis C. Turk, Robert H. Dworkin, Richard B. North, Simon Thomson Tags: Review Article Source Type: research