Location of a DBS-Electrode in Lateral Thalamus for Deafferentation Pain. An Autopsy Case Report

Abstract
Pain relief was obtainable when deep brain stimulation was tried in the sensory thalamic nucleus in a patient with deaffereantation pain to cervical myelopathy. The electrode was histologically verified in post-mortem examination after 20 months and the localization of contact points of the implanted electrode was estimated. The cathode appeared to have been placed in the region from Vim to the rostral border of Vci while the anode was in the medial lemniscus region. Stimulation of the Vim nucleus might have had a pain relieving effects because no facial paraesthesiae was evoked by stimulation. The implanted electrode caused only minor histological changes.