Pain and Therapy (Feb 2025)

Can Spinal Cord Stimulation be Considered as a Frontier for Chronic Pain in Diabetic Foot?

  • Ying Zhang,
  • Huifeng Zhang,
  • Kaizhong Wang,
  • Xiangyan Liu,
  • Zhonghai Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40122-025-00710-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 2
pp. 589 – 616

Abstract

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Abstract Chronic pain in the diabetic foot (DF) is a common complication of diabetes, bringing a significant burden to patients, their families, and even society. There is no very effective treatment for it, traditional treatments such as medication, lumbar sympathetic nerve block, and alternative therapies are often not very effective and have more adverse effects. The emergence of neuromodulation technology has brought new hope for the treatment of DF, among which spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a hotspot in current research and has achieved remarkable efficacy in the study of DF treatment by blocking pain signaling and improving circulation and other mechanisms. This article reviews the SCS technique and clinical trails of SCS for chronic DF pain, and describes the prospects and current challenges of SCS.

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