Shoulder pain after stroke, its causes and some treatments I plan to post about soon. However, there is one treatment I want to focus on up front, because its new and has tremendous potential.
It's called the StimRouter. Its made by the company Bioness which you know because of their electrical stimulation (E-Stim) machines:...
But they have a new treatment for pain. But we're talking shoulder pain, so allow me to focus on that...
Briefly: Small electrodes are implanted under the skin, right next to the nerve that is sending pain signals. The actual reason e-stim block pain is unknown, but its thought that the nerve is confused by the e-stim. Basically (it is thought) that the e-stim "out-competes" the pain signal as the pain goes from (in this case) the shoulder, to the spinal cord and brain. The StimRouter is placed under local anesthesia, usually in an outpatient setting- takes about 15 minutes.
Cool vid here:
