Deep Brain Stimulation for Chronic Pain

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical intervention well known for the treatment of movement disorders as well as epilepsy, Tourette syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. DBS was pioneered in the 1950s, however, as a tool for treating facial pain, phantom limb pain, post-stroke pain, and brachial plexus pain among other disease states. Various anatomic targets exist, including the sensory thalamus (ventral posterior lateral and ventral posterior medial), the periaqueductal gray and periventricular gray matter, and the anterior cingulate cortex.