How to treat chronic ischemic pain in the lower extremities

Chronic ischemic pain in the lower extremities is a chronic pain caused by poor circulation in the body or excessive adhesion of nerve tissue. In the initial stage, patients usually feel numbness, drop in skin temperature, and even “intermittent claudication”; in severe cases, they may feel persistent pain at rest (e.g., tingling, numbness, burning sensation, or in other ways). In the most severe cases, ulcers and necrosis may appear on the affected limb, and the limb may even be amputated. These symptoms not only bother the patients themselves, but also greatly reduce the quality of sleep and life! Patients with these symptoms are first treated with medications (e.g. Aspirin, Clopidogrel, Pentoxifylline, Ticlopidine, etc.), and only when medications are ineffective or symptoms are severe do they require further surgical treatment. Most of the patients can improve their symptoms and reduce their pain after “percutaneous transluminal arterioplasty” or “vascular bypass surgery”. However, there are still a few patients who cannot control their pain with these treatments, or whose pain treatment has lost its effectiveness or even caused uncomfortable side effects. In addition to the conventional treatments, nowadays “cremaster stimulation therapy” can be a new option to improve pain! But what is cremasteric stimulation (SCS)? A tiny electrode chip is placed in the patient’s back, which is linked to a nerve stimulator buried in the lower abdomen and sends tiny electrical waves through it to suppress pain messages to the brain. Most patients feel their pain masked by a massage like numbing sensation. This therapy has been used to treat chronic ischemic pain in the lower extremities since 1967 and has been prevalent in Europe and the United States for decades. International studies have reported that the use of this therapy not only reduces pain by 50% to 70%, but also improves circulation in the lower extremities and reduces the amputation rate to about 30%. In addition, with the reduction of oral medication, the side effects are reduced and the quality of sleep and life is greatly improved!