Results of a 12-month multicenter randomized clinical trial led by Erika Petersen, M.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), were published online Nov. 29 in Diabetes Care, highlighting the benefits of a breakthrough treatment for patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN).
Petersen, director of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at UAMS, was the lead investigator in the study that involved 216 patients at 18 centers in the United States. Johnathan Goree, M.D., an associate professor in the UAMS Department of Anesthesiology and director of the Chronic Pain Division, is a co-investigator on the study.
The study, for which UAMS began enrolling participants in 2018, examined results of high-frequency spinal cord stimulation therapy for patients with PDN, a chronic neurological condition that manifests as burning, excruciating, stabbing or intractable pain, or tingling or numbness. Specifically, the study compared the 10 kHz treatment plus conventional medical management to results of the conventional treatment alone, and found that the high-frequency therapy results in significant pain relief and neurological improvements in patients with persistent PDN.
