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Facial Pain Update: Advances in Neurostimulation for the Treatment of Facial Pain

  • Other Pain (N Vadivelu and A Kaye, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Pain and Headache Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Craniofacial pain, including trigeminal neuralgia, trigeminal neuropathic pain, and persistent idiopathic facial pain, is difficult to treat and can have severe implications for suffering in patients afflicted with these conditions. In recent years, clinicians have moved beyond treating solely with pharmacological therapies, which are generally not very effective, and focused on new interventional pain procedures. These procedures have evolved as technology has advanced, and thus far, early results have demonstrated efficacy in small patient cohorts with a variety of craniofacial pain states. Some of the most promising interventional pain procedures include peripheral nerve field stimulation, high-frequency spinal cord stimulation, sphenopalatine ganglion stimulation, and deep brain stimulation. This review focuses on a better understanding of craniofacial pain and emerging interventional pain therapies. With the advent of newer miniature wireless devices and less invasive implantation techniques, this should allow for more widespread use of neurostimulation as a therapeutic modality for treating craniofacial pain. Larger studies should assist in best practice strategies vis-à-vis traditional pharmacological therapies and emerging interventional pain techniques.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Rajivan Maniam & Richard D. Urman

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Louisiana State University Medical School, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Alan David Kaye

  3. Department of Anesthesiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Nalini Vadivelu

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  1. Rajivan Maniam
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  2. Alan David Kaye
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  3. Nalini Vadivelu
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  4. Richard D. Urman
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Correspondence to Richard D. Urman.

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Conflict of Interest

Rajivan Maniam, Alan David Kaye, and Nalini Vadivelu declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Richard D. Urman declares grants from Mallinckrodt, Inc. and Cara/Premier Pharma, Inc., and personal fees from Merck, Inc.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Other Pain

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Maniam, R., Kaye, A.D., Vadivelu, N. et al. Facial Pain Update: Advances in Neurostimulation for the Treatment of Facial Pain. Curr Pain Headache Rep 20, 24 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-016-0553-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-016-0553-0

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