Save Yourself From Opioids After Surgeries With The ‘Nerve Zap’ Pain Relief Technique

0
762
Save Yourself From Opioids After Surgeries With The 'Nerve Zap' Pain Relief Technique

Are you also suffering from post-operation pain so? Here is a very new technique to relieve you from that unbearable pain that too without using any opioids in the process. In this technique, a small wire is inserted near a nerve, and then a very mild electrical current is sent to the target location; this blocks the path for the pain transmission. This very effective technique is referred to as percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation.

Save Yourself From Opioids After Surgeries With The ‘Nerve Zap’ Pain Relief Technique

In the University of California, San Diego, a team of Dr Brian Ilfeld has performed this technique for testing on the patients suffering from major shoulder surgery also including the ones with knee, ankle and foot operation the most surprising part if the wire is inserted on the specific location without making the individual unconscious or any sedation.

Save Yourself From Opioids After Surgeries With The 'Nerve Zap' Pain Relief Technique

Ilfeld explained that the technique is pretty straight forward and direct. By first making the skin of the patient numb and then inserting the wire at the targeted location and after which we use an ultrasound machine to direct the needle on the specified nerve and precisely at the distance of one centimetre away the lead which is present in the needle is released in the body and with this very patiently the needle is removed from the place with the lead left in the body.

The best part about the technique is soon after the procedure; patients are in the condition to move because doctors had already used nerve block to stop the severe pain for 10 to 12 hours.

As the Individual reaches the recovery room, a very small simulator sticks to the patient’s body, which is of the size of two half-dollars and is kept very close to one other. When he reaches home, he can use a pulse generator often operated by a powered battery to control the electric stimulation.

There were almost 65 volunteers in this pilot study, with 31 of them in the active device group, whereas the leftovers were on the dummy devices. Also, with this, everyone was given opioid medicines just in case needed. Soon after the finish of two weeks during the post-operation check-up, the lead which was inserted is removed out. Then the patients are kept under observation for at least four months and kept a strict check on them.

Doctors were more than happy about the recently published online journal Anesthesiology briefing about the new technique developed. To everyone’s surprise, Dr. Ilfeld stated that it was almost a decrease of 80% in the use of opioids, and also 60% of the pain was relieved for the patients who undergone the technique.

These results have shown that the technique was more than what was expected from it on a positive note. But also one drawback to it was that this technique was effective only for the specified small areas in the body and may not work the same in case of the regions which have multiple nerves to deal with.

A technique like this is revolutionary for the doctors and the patients suffering from such conditions because anything which reduces the use of opioids is definitely potent of something very much greater expected to everyone knowledge opioids have numerous harmful effects on the individual, and the use of percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation could prevent all of those.