This Implant Cools off Nerves to Provide Targeted Pain Alleviation

A small implant that wraps around nerves and cools them has been shown to deliver targeted pain relief in rats. If it is as safe and reliable in human beings, the “nerve cooler” could assist individuals in managing pain without addicting opioids.

Why it is crucial

Approximately 20% of Americans live with chronic pain, and millions more have severe acute pain following injuries, illness, and also surgery.

Doctors commonly prescribe opioids to relieve pain; although these medications are effective, they are also addicting and regularly misused. The requirement to develop better alternative pain administration methods is elevated.

The alternative

Nerve cooling is one manner to ease pain without medications. By applying cool directly to a nerve, medical professionals can block its capacity to transfer pain signals to the brain, providing targeted pain relief.

Conventional techniques for cooling nerves are less than ideal, stopping the strategy from being widely used.

Applying cold directly to a nerve can block its ability to transmit pain signals to the cerebrum.

“[The methods] rely on precooled liquids, like methanol, delivered by a metal or silicone loop or a thermoelectric device,” Stanford University scientists Shan Jiang and Guosong Hong, who were not associated with the study, wrote in a Perspective item about the study.

“These interfaces are restricted by their large and stiff structures, nonspecific cooling, and high-power demand,” they explain.

The implant

Investigators from the University of Oregon and Northwestern University have presently created a new implant that uses nerve colding to deliver targeted discomfort relief.

Their implant consists of an adjustable elastic band made from a biodegradable material. Embedded in the band are small channels that hold a liquid coolant. There is also a layer of gadgets in the band linked to a temperature sensor near the end of it.

Completing the band with the sensor is wrapped around the offending nerve like a cuff to deliver targeted pain alleviation. The other end stays outside the body, connected to a pump and control system.

When nitrogen gas is pumped through the device, the coolant evaporates, which reduces the temperature and cools the nerve. When the treatment is completed, the pump and control system is detached, and the band dissolves into the body– no demand for an extraction surgery.

The gadget rapidly and precisely cooled down the animals’ sciatic nerves when assessed in rat models of neuropathic pain. Electrical conductivity by means of the nerve was blocked, and the animals appeared to experience pain alleviation for weeks after the gadget was implanted.

Looking ahead

Research in human beings is required before the implant could be used in individuals, but if it works out as expected, it could help reduce the demand for pain-relieving opioids, particularly following particular procedures, such as amputations, nerve grafts, or spinal surgery.

“Here, the relevant nerves are already separated and identified,” the researchers write. “Thus, the cuff application would be straightforward to incorporate into the clinical workflow.

Read the original article on Free Think.