Trial reportPain research & management2026
Effect of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Prevention of Postoperative Pain After Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Pain research & management, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionTranscranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), which can noninvasively entrain oscillatory brain activity, has attracted scientific attention as a possible technique to control pain. However, there is a scarcity of studies investigating the preventive effect of tACS on postoperative pain.
methodsThis double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial enrolled 72 patients undergoing elective video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to receive a single 20-min session of α-tACS on the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) or sham stimulation postoperatively. The primary outcomes were postoperative numerical rating scale pain scores and opioid consumption at 24 h postoperatively. Secondary outcomes included cumulative opioid consumption within 48 h and Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15) score. Adverse events were also assessed.
resultsThe tACS group exhibited significantly lower resting pain scores versus the sham group (β = -0.49, 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.78 to -0.20, p = 0.001) and lower movement pain scores versus the sham group (β = -0.45, 95% CI, -0.84 to -0.06, p = 0.025), though cumulative opioid consumption showed no difference at 24 h (median difference [MD] = 1.0 mg; 95% CI, -2.3 to 2.5; p = 0.76) and 48 h (MD = 3.3 mg; 95% CI, -0.6 to 9.1; p = 0.10) postoperatively. Additionally, the area under the curve for resting pain over 2-24 h (AUC
conclusionFor patients undergoing VATS, a single α-tACS treatment targeting the bilateral S1 regions yielded a statistically significant yet modest reduction in postoperative pain. However, no significant decrease in postoperative opioid consumption was observed, and further research is warranted.
trial registrationChinese Registry of Clinical Trials: ChiCTR2300078723.
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