title: Ablative procedures for chronic pain.
abstract: The advent of neuroaugmentative techniques has reduced the application of neuroablative procedures, especially as regards pain of functional origin. Although intracranial ablative procedures are now rarely performed, spinal ablative procedures, such as anterolateral cordotomies or midline myelotomies, remain important in the management of cancer pain. These procedures produce immediate and satisfactory pain relief with acceptable complication rates. An important future trend will be the application of radiosurgery guided by functional imaging (eg,fMRI, PET) to place such intracranial lesions as cingulotomies or medial thalamotomies.
authors.affiliation: Epilepsy Surgery Unit, Department of Neurosurgery, Neuromed IRCCS, Pozzilli, Italy. leoromanelli@neuromed.it
authors.forename: Pantaleo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romanelli
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Adler
mesh_terms: D017115:Catheter Ablation; D002908:Chronic Disease; D002818:Cordotomy; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007016:Hypophysectomy; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000601:surgery; D010146:Pain / Q000601:surgery*; D016634:Radiosurgery; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots / Q000601:surgery; D013788:Thalamus / Q000601:surgery