Animal Pain Models for Spinal Cord Stimulation

Abstract

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an electrical neuromodulation technique with proven effectiveness and safety for the treatment of intractable chronic pain in humans. Despite its widespread use, the mechanism of action is not fully understood. Animal models of chronic pain, particularly rodent-based, have been adapted to study the effect of SCS on pain-like behavior, as well as on the electrophysiology and molecular biology of neural tissues. This chapter reviews animal pain models for SCS, emphasizing on findings relevant to advancing our understanding of the mechanism of action of SCS, and highlighting the contribution of the animal model to advance clinical outcomes. The models described include those in which SCS has been coupled to neuropathic pain models in rats and sheep based on peripheral nerve injuries, including the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model and the spared nerve injury model (SNI). Other neuropathic pain models described are the spinal nerve ligation (SNL) for neuropathic pain of segmental origin, as well as the chemotherapy-induced and diabetes-induced peripheral neuropathy models. We also describe the use of SCS with inflammatory pain and ischemic pain models.