An interventional study of Peripheral Nerve Field Stimulation by Thermal Micro-Cautery in Chronic Pain Syndrome, sponsored by The National Children's Hospital, Tallaght. Completed at 1 site in Ireland. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-11-07.
Sponsored by The National Children's Hospital, Tallaght · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
To trial a traditional pain management technique from Ayurveda in a modern way - the technique involves micro - cautery to painful areas in knee osteoarthritis for patients on a waiting list for knee replacement. The Investigators will include a waiting list control series.
The Research and Ethics Committee at Tallaght University Hospital approved the recruitment of patient into the study by invitation. Patients who accepted the invitation were enrolled into the intervention group and patients who declined the invitation were enrolled into the control group and both groups were followed up for 8 week period. Agnikarma is a traditional surgical technique (thermal cautery) described in ancient surgical manuscripts for the treatment of severe persistent pain.
It applies intense heat to points of maximum pain agreed with the patient pre procedure. The heat is applied by a metal rod (Shalaka) heated in an open naked flame. The rod is applied to the skin at the agreed pain point in an even manner and generates a micro second degree burn. A traditional herbal cream is then applied which cools the application as reported by the patient. It is usual to allow skin healing to occur before the application of further heat (1-2 weeks). The pain points can move within a painful area and the technique best works with precise application to the current pain point. So before each application the precise points are agreed with the patient in advance by demarcating the painful area with a pen and searching for the points of maximum tenderness within that field.
The purpose of this study was simply to define if indeed this technique delivers pain relief as observed in practice. The investigators chose one group to study - painful knee arthritis. In this condition patients often wait many years for the definitive procedure and run some risks with current pain relief treatment. As these patients were not the normal attendees at a pain clinic the investigators decided in advance to limit the study to 4 applications over a 4- 8 week period, the latter to allow for different speeds at which the skin might heal. The investigators recruited both our interventional group and waiting list control group from the same orthopedic waiting list.
3,227 studies on the registry are indexed under Chronic Pain; 729 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 30 is below the median of 60 across 2,388 interventional studies indexed under Chronic Pain.
Browse Chronic Pain studies →The National Children's Hospital, Tallaght is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Procedure- The patients in the intervention group were examined and the most painful points over the knee with the avoidance of the proposed site for skin incision for a future knee replacement operation were marked. The marked points received an intervention in the form of application of Peripheral Nerve Field Stimulation by Thermal Micro-Cautery (PNFS-TMC), an intense heat by metal rod was applied to the painful points for 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. The patients to receive 4 sessions over a period of 8 weeks with 2 weeks rest after every session.
Other: Peripheral Nerve Field Stimulation by Thermal Micro-Cautery
Patients with painful knee osteoarthritis and on the waiting list for a total knee replacement surgery and declined to have PNFS-TMC were included in the control group. The control group received the stepladder analgesic protocol for pain management. The analgesic protocol was managed by the orthopaedic team without any interference by the investigators.
The most painful points over the knee received an intense heat by a metal rod for 0.5 seconds.
Change in VAS score reduction after 4 sessions
To measure the change in a visual analogue scale is a numerical ruler of 10 cm in length with each centimetre marked and the patient chooses a number between one and ten to score their pain where zero is no pain and 10 is the worst pain that the subject can imagine.
Time frame: VAS score was recorded every two weeks, after each session with a total of 4 sessions over 8 weeks. 2 weeks interval between sessions
Change in activity levels
The change in the activity subjective scores reported by the patient as follow; score 1 means improved , score 2 means worse and score 3 means no change
Time frame: The objective activity score was recorded every two weeks after each session with a total of 4 sessions over 8 weeks
Change in sleep pattern
The change in the subjective scores reported by patient as follows, score 1 means improved, 2 means worse and 3 means the same as before
Time frame: The change in the sleep pattern was recorded every two weeks after each session with a total of 4 sessions over 8 weeks
Change in medication use
1 means improved as in less use of medication, 2 means worse more use of medication and 3 means the same use of analgesic medication
Time frame: The change in the medication use was recorded every two weeks after each session with a total of 4 sessions over 8 weeks
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Ran from Nov 2016 to primary completion in Jul 2018, 20 months.
Of 1,295 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Chronic Pain, half reached primary completion within 20 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 39. This study's 20 months is close to that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 1,378 studies reached it within 20 months; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 38.
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This study is completed, as verified in Mar 2018. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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The National Children's Hospital, Tallaght