Papers of the Week

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a pain syndrome that develops within few months after the acute herpetic outbreak. The pain may be accompanied by specific cutaneous signs in the distribution of affected dermatomes and feel unbearable reaching up to 9-10/10 on visual analog scale (VAS). Despite the introduction of new medications, drug resistance develops in at least 50% of cases. Neuromodulation techniques such as spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) are considered as ones of the last resorts for PHN treatment, especially in pharmacoresistant patients. Recently, several studies with limited number of cases have shown high efficiency of neuromodulation (regression of pain syndrome in more than 82% of cases) after SCS in PHN patients, but these findings require further confirmation and have not been supported by large RCTs.