Surgery For Fibromyalgia Treatment

Surgery For Fibromyalgia Treatment.
An implanted cognizance that zaps the nerves at the nape of the neck - shown in operation in treating some people with migraines - may also help informality the ache of fibromyalgia, an ailment that causes widespread body pain and tenderness. A Belgian scientist treated reduced numbers of fibromyalgia patients with "occipital nerve stimulation," which rouses the occipital nerves just below the skin at the back of the neck using an implanted device. Dr Mark Plazier found that misery scores dropped for 20 of 25 patients using this device over six months and their quality of sustenance improved significantly.

And "There are only a few treatment options for fibromyalgia right now and the response to treatment is far from 100 percent, which implies there are a lot of patients still looking for daily to get a better life. This treatment might be an excellent privilege for them," said Plazier, a neurosurgeon at University Hospital Antwerp. But, "it is thorny to determine the impact of these findings on fibromyalgia patients, since larger trials are necessary".

Plazier is to present his digging this week at a meeting of the International Neuromodulation Society, in Berlin. Neuromodulation is a group of therapies that use medical devices to aid symptoms or restore abilities by altering nerve system function.

Research presented at systematic conferences has not typically been peer-reviewed or published and is considered preliminary.

Fibromyalgia is thought to affect about 5 million American adults - most of them women - according to the US National Institutes of Health. The cause of the disorder, which can also count in be in the land of Nod problems, anxiety and depression, is unknown and it can be difficult to treat. Plazier also presented a disjoined study on six fibromyalgia patients using PET scan images to visualize imagination changes from occipital nerve stimulation treatment in June 2013.

It suggested that the valour stimulation changes activity in the limbic system, a brain region that helps select pain perception. "In fibromyalgia, we see that there is a hypervigilance to pain, so patients are more sensitive to irritation and more aware of it. They also have high scores on questionnaires concerning catastrophizing behavior, which implies the euphoric impact of pain on their lives".

So "During occipital nerve stimulation we see differences in intellectual activity on PET scans in regions involved in pain. This all might suggest that we are influencing a cerebral method and might even turn it back to 'normal' perception". Study participants didn't find the nerve-zapping care to be painful.

The occipital nerve stimulation device is implanted during a brief surgery using general anesthesia and postoperative tribulation is normal but not extreme. Dr Patrick Wood, director of the fibromyalgia clinic at Madison River Oaks Medical Center in Canton, Miss, called the calculated "interesting and promising" but said additional check in is necessary before treatment with occipital nerve stimulation - which may expenditure around $10000 - could become mainstream for fibromyalgia patients.

So "It's mostly used in headaches, and even in the annoyance realm it's still considered experimental. It would be nice to have expanded data here that would indicate there's something merit banking on and putting our hopes on this site. It's promising, but more work needs to be done before the middling patient can consider it".