Cutaneous blood flow increases in the rat hindpaw during dorsal column stimulation.

The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal stimulation site and parameters that result in the greatest changes in cutaneous blood flow during dorsal column stimulation (DCS). Laser Doppler flowmetry was used to assess cutaneous blood flow changes in both rat hindpaws during DCS with a unipolar ball electrode. We found that stimulating the dorsal column at the L2 spinal segment at 0.6 mA at either 25 or 50 Hz with a pulse duration of 0.2 ms resulted in the largest cutaneous blood flow increases in the rat hindpaw. In addition, the DCS response appeared to be limited primarily to the hindpaw ipsilateral to the site of DCS.