Scrambling Nerve Signals to Manage Pain

A new non-invasive pain management device rapidly treats high-intensity oncologic and neuropathic pain, including pain resistant to morphine and other drugs.

The pain-management therapy device, developed with a biophysical rather than a biochemical approach, employes single-use surface electrodes applied to the skin, which are used to simulate five artificial neurons. The electronic nerve stimulation uses the nerve fiber as a passive means to convey a message of normality to the central nervous system (CNS) by a procedure defined as scrambling or mixing of information, which then enables the CNS to recognize the signal as a non-algic one and modify the reflex adaptive responses accordingly. The device--currently referred to as the transcutaneous electromanipulation by nervous patterns scrambler (TENPS)--uses a Scrambler, a multiprocessor apparatus able to simultaneously treat multiple pain areas in the individual. The device, which was developed by Professor Giuseppe Marineo, Ph.D., a researcher and bioengineer affiliated with Tor Vergata University (Rome, Italy) is marketed and distributed by Competitive Technologies (Fairfield, CT, USA). The device has received the CE marking certification from the European Union.

"This important technology has been successfully used in seven hospitals in Italy on over 2,000 patients,” said John Nano, CTT chairman, president, and CEO. "There are over 16,000 hospitals in addition to hospices and pain treatment centers throughout Europe that can utilize this pain treatment device.”

Benign chronic pain after oncologic therapy is as an actual pathology seriously affecting the life of patients, their relatives, and society as a whole. Very often cancer-unrelated pain persists even after the organic cause has been removed. About 30% of benign chronic pain proves not to be treatable with satisfactory outcomes using analgesic drugs or other known treatments. Scrambler therapy works in benign chronic pain to restore the ability to work and entertain social relations, to enhance the overall quality of life of patients and their families; to resolve stably chronic pain when the organic damage has been removed or stabilized, and to cancel out the memory of the pain when it is not possible to stabilize the cause.


Related Links:
Tor Vergata University
Competitive Technologies