Implanted Pain Pumps Helpful to Some Patients Recovering from Shingles, New Study Finds

Some of the estimated one million Americans each year who are recovering from the skin disorder shingles may find effective pain relief in surgically implanted pain pumps that deliver pain medication directly to the spinal fluid, researchers say.

Using a constant flow of pain killers to treat pain from shingles, a chronic condition in which a painful rash forms on the skin particularly around the ankles, knees, and arms, can result in “dramatic improvement in pain,” according to researchers from the University of Buffalo.

The use of implanted pain pumps generally is reserved for patients who are in chronic pain resulting from cancer, recent surgeries, and other causes. However, the new study found that the medical devices can prove useful in providing comfort to people who are recovering from shingles.

Shingles Causes Painful Skin Rash

Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, which in children can cause chickenpox. In about 15 percent of shingles cases, the pain lasts for at least one month. Pain associated with recovery from shingles is called postherpetic neuralgia or post-shingles pain.

For the study, researchers focused on five patients, both men and women, with an average age of 75 being treated for post-shingles pain. None of the patients had benefitted from oral pain medications prescribed for their conditions, researchers said.

Doctors used surgically implanted pain pumps, roughly the size of a hockey puck and inserted under the skin of the abdomen in a surgical procedure that took less than one hour. Medication in the pump is delivered through a thin plastic tube connected to the spine, allowing the pain killers to reach the spinal fluid.

The patients received the same dose of pain killer, either morphine or a similar drug, and reported less pain during their recovery from shingles. Also, participants in the study reported no side effects from the use of the pain pump.

Researchers said the use of implantable pain pumps in patients recovering from shingles is not considered a first line of defense against pain from shingles and should be reserved for patients who fail to respond to more traditional treatments, such as oral pain killers.

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