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Transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) has been shown to be very effective in providing acute postoperative and delivery pain relief. We specifically applied this modality ot Northwestern Memorial Hospital using constant postoperative neurostimulation to patients who had had cervical or lumbar laminectomies for a variety of reasons, but mainly for herniated intervertebral discs and osteoarthritic spurs. The results in both groups were compatible with earlier findings by Hymes and co-workers, who reported decreased narcotic intake, decreased pain behavior or subjective complaints, and increased physical recovery. Patients who responded to TENS showed an average 50% decrease in dosage of narcotic analgesics, expressed fewer complaints of pain, and appeared to show more rapid postoperative physical recovery than the patients who were not treated with TENS. Seventy-nine percent of the lumbar laminectomy group and 87.5% of the cervical laminectomy group showed 50% or greater relief of acute, severe postlaminectomy pain. Other advantages of using TENS included ease of application and lack of major complaints.

Transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation (TENS) has recently emerged as a distinct therapeutic modality in the alleviation of acute and chronic pain. We applied this modality to 15 nonsurgical low-back pain patients having diagnoses of functional pain, with 40% initially having significant pain relief (50% of greater). However, this pain-alleviating effect of TENS did not last longer than two months. After initiation of neurostimulation, increased pain and/or bizarre and inappropriate sensations and behavior frequently developed. We also applied this modality in the diagnostic evaluation and treatment of 24 patients having diagnoses of postsurgical chronic intractable low-back pain of psychosomatic origin and achieved similar results. In both groups, we utilized a simplified poststimulation "normal-saline-sterile-water intramuscular injection test" to confirm the findings from transcutaneous electrical neurostimulation and to verify the functional basis of the present low-back pain.