Peripheral nerve stimulation for the treatment of neuropathic craniofacial pain

Treatment of neuropathic pain in the region of head and face presents a challenging problem for pain specialists. In particular, those patients who do not respond to conventional treatment modalities usually continue to suffer from pain due to lack of reliable medical and surgical approaches. Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) has been used for treatment of neuropathic pain for many decades, but only recently it has been systematically applied to the craniofacial region. Here we summarize published experience with PNS in treatment of craniofacial pain and discuss some technical details of the craniofacial PNS procedure.