Apparatus and method for rapid suppression of neuropathic, oncological, and paediatric pain, resistant to opiates and to conventional electro-analgesia

摘要

An apparatus and a method for rapid suppression of acute and chronic pain, which can be used also in the paediatric field or with particular forms of pain such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) and neuralgias that affect the eye bulb. It is in general particularly useful and effective in regard to pains of high degree and/or resistant to other analgesics, such as opiates or other forms of conventional electro-analgesia such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators (TENS) and implanted stimulators. Strings of synthetic non-pain information of considerable effectiveness are generated, such as to enable a high reproducibility of the clinical result. The strings of information are produced by selecting predefined primitive waveforms and processing the waveforms on the basis of one or more parameters. The resulting waveforms are combined into a temporal sequence, the sequence is produced as an electrical output signal by a synthesizer module. The electrical output is applied to the C fibres of a patient so as to excite the C fibres, without blocking them, and convert electrical stimulus into non-pain information, thus inducing analgesia. The sequence is varied so as to avoid a resistance against a particular sequence of primitive waveforms reducing the analgesic effect.