Observational studyJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2026
Immediate changes during dysesthesia-matched transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in refractory neuropathic pain: a retrospective observational case series.
Observational study in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDysesthesia-such as tingling and numbness-remains refractory to pharmacological treatment and poses therapeutic challenges within neuropathic pain. Dysesthesia-matched transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (DM-TENS) is a perceptually guided neuromodulation approach in which stimulation parameters are iteratively adjusted to synchronize with the perceived temporal patterns and intensity of the patient's abnormal sensory experience. However, immediate responses to DM-TENS across heterogeneous neuropathic pain conditions, as well as the feasibility of both direct and indirect (remote-site) stimulation approaches have not been described.
methodsThis retrospective observational case series included consecutive patients with refractory neuropathic pain referred from the pain clinic to the rehabilitation department at our university hospital between December 2024 and August 2025. Dysesthesia intensity was assessed before and during stimulation using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), and pain quality was evaluated using the Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire-2 (SF-MPQ-2) as an exploratory measure. Within-session changes were examined using session-level linear mixed-effects models, with aggregated non-parametric analyses performed as sensitivity analyses. As an exploratory analysis, within-patient consistency of stimulation parameters (frequency, pulse width, and intensity) across repeated sessions was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).
resultsDM-TENS was well tolerated in all participants, with no stimulation-related adverse events requiring session termination. Fifteen patients underwent 66 DM-TENS sessions, of which 64 provided NRS data. A session-level linear mixed-effects model showed significantly lower NRS scores during stimulation (p < 1 × 10⁻
conclusionsIn this retrospective observational case series, lower within-session symptom scores were observed during DM-TENS across heterogeneous neuropathic pain conditions, including trigeminal, spinal, and peripheral presentations. These findings raise the hypothesis that individualized, perceptually guided adjustment of stimulation parameters warrants prospective evaluation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.