Brachial plexus avulsion neuropathic refractory pain: association of spinal cord stimulation and DREZotomy for complex pain
Rômulo A. S. Marques, MD,1 Rodrigo A. C. Cavalcante, MD, PhD,1 and Lucas M. C. E. Pimenta2
1Department of Neurosurgery and 2School of Medicine, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
A 52-year-old male was involved in a car accident 30 years ago. He presented with complete motor paralysis of the left upper limb. This evolved into severe neuropathic pain (mainly shocking and burning sensation) distributed from C5 to T1 dermatomes. He was first treated with spinal cord stimulation (SCS), which did not show efficacy for pain control, maintaining high visual analog scale (VAS) scores. He then received complementary treatment with left cervical DREZotomy to mitigate suffering and preserve SCS function to control “mirror pain.