Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for chronic pain.

The results of 7 years experience in treating pain with transcutaneous electrical stimulation are reported. It was used on a group of 74 patients with postherpetic neuralgia and on a mixed group of 161 patients with chronic pain due to other conditions for which other forms of treatment had been unsatisfactory. The patients were lent stimulators and electrodes of various kinds. A half of the patients returned their stimulators after one month, but a quarter of the patients were still using transcutaneous stimulation after 2 years. No particular disease responded better or less well than any other; no particular kind of pain responded particularly well or badly. One third of the patients with postherpetic neuralgia started improving from the commencement of stimulation.