Abstract

Objectives & Background: Post-laminectomy syndrome specifically refers to pain associated with symptoms
not relieved following laminectomy. This entity is a very disabling and hard to manage problem in patients
undergoing spinal procedures. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation has been introduced as a non invasive
modality for pain control. This study was aimed to determine the effectiveness of TENS in the management of
postlaminectomy syndrome. No similar study has been performed in our country yet.
Materials and Methods: In this study 35 patients among 85 serial cases with post laminectomy syndrome from
2008-2009 were treated by transcutaneous stimulation. Age, sex, duration and type of symptoms, topographical
locations, radiological and the results, for pain control were analyzed. Pain degree determined before stimulation
and then 2 hours and 48 hours afterwards using visual analog scale.
Results: This study is based on the data from 35 serial patients visited in the senior author's clinic. 60% of the
patients were male. The average age of our patients was 49.5 years. The most common location was L4-5
interspace (40%). Average pain score before stimulation was 7 and declined to the mean 5 after 2 hours and to 4
after 48 hours.
Conclusions: According to our study the successful results of transcutaneous stimulation occurred in 17.14 %
after 2 hours and 22.8 % after 48 hours. In the management of postlaminectomy syndrome the patients need
individualized approaches. Further multicentric clinical trials are needed to generalize the results in these
patients.

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