Treatment of Post Herpetic Neuralgia by Peripheral Nerve Stimulation
 

As mentioned in the Shingles thread, my wife has had extremely painful Post-Herpetic-Neuralgia for 13 years, following a bout of Shingles. I am sharing this info with the hope that anyone else suffering the same way could benefit from this knowledge. Every other modality failed to help the pain. We tried EVERYTHING.

After a trial, she recently underwent an implantation in the pain area of her back of electrodes and the placement of a sending/battery unit in her buttocks area. She can recharge the battery by induction and controls the frequency and intensity of the electrical impulses through an external remote control. For the first time in 13 year she is mostly pain free.

This is NOT a spinal stimulator, but a peripheral nerve stimulator, avoiding the dangers inherent in spinal implantation of a device. It is expensive - the whole procedure including the trial is about $60,000, and may or may not be covered by insurance/medicare. In our case, it was not supposed to be covered, but, amazingly, almost all of it was covered.

Very few neurosurgeons know how to do this properly. Dr. Barolat, of Barolat Neurosciences in Denver, did her procedure. He has done 100's of these successfully. Other chronic pain syndromes may also be a candidate for this treatment.

Please pass this on to anyone who may also be suffering PHN.

And, get your Shingles shot - they were not available when she had her Shingles.

Best shot is Shingrix, given twice at 2-6 month interval. If you are on medicare expect a co-pay of $75-160 per shot.
Availability is limited so best check your local pharmacy to get on the list. If they don't have a list check around til
you find one that does. We got ours through the Sam's Club which did have a list and called us when it came in.
Shot itself was piece of cake, minor dull ache at the site for 12-24 hrs then nothing.

Shingrix is the shingles vaccine, not a treatment for post-herpatic neuralgia. Post-herpatic neuralgia is a potential long-term, sometimes permanent complication of shingles:

"Shingrix is not a treatment for herpes zoster or postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). The general guidance for any vaccine is to wait until the acute stage of the illness is over and symptoms abate."

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shi...endations.html

Our quest to cure a family member's seemingly incurable chronic pain and neurological issues brought us to Dr. Barolat in Denver. We found him to be personable, brilliant and truly caring. After considering our options we went with a nerve stimulator from Boston Scientific. It really was a miracle. The unit has multiple adjustments and patterns and everything is programmable, and programmable on schedules.

The unit worked on the pain like nothing else we tried did, and without drugs! Ultimately, it was incompatible with our specific situation, which our research showed was a possibility, but worth trying, since there was a good chance for long-term success.

To be clear, our malady was NOT post-herpatic neuralgia.

However, we were grateful to Dr. Barolat for the first pain-free months in years.

We have since found a mix of drugs that work for us. And while the pain can be brought under control, it still doesn't compare to the results of the electric stimulation.

:eek: I had chicken pox.

Get the vaccine. Although the virus is likely resident on your nerve tracts, the vaccine will stimulate your immune system to suppress any flare-up of the virus that could lead to shingles.