Pain

Interventional pain management and peripheral neuropathy

• Spinal cord stimulation in treatment of chronic neuropathic pain.
• Sacral neuro-stimulation and effect on bladder control and defaecation (collaborative project within Brain-and-Nerve Centre (BNC) (MUMC+).

Prediction and treatment of postoperative pain

• Somatic and psychological predictors of persisting postsurgical pain.
• Long-term effects on post-operative pain of early life painful procedures .
• Functional and anatomical alterations in spinal and brainstem pain circuits in relation to postoperative pain and its co-morbidities (anxiety/depression/stress).
• Conditioned pain modulation and sensory disturbances of the thoracic wall after breast cancer treatment.

Unique contributions and highlights

• Clinical study on effect of cooled Radiofrequency in knee pain (with Department of Orthopaedics). Multicentre Rijnstate (Arnhem), ZOL (Genk), MUMC+.
• Translational research on painful procedures in early life and long-term effects (collaboration with Erasmus MC, Prof.Dr.D.Tibboel, Dr.Sinno Simons) .
• Translational research (laboratory and clinical) on DRG (dorsal root ganglion)-stimulation in discogenic pain (lab-study sponsored by Abbott; Clinical study in collaboration with Rijnstate Arnhem).
• Mechanism of Burst spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and descending tracts in peripheral neuropathy (lab-study, sponsored by Boston Scientific).
• SCS in Painful Diabetic Polyneuropathy: clinical study (with Radboud University) and laboratory study (sponsored by Medtronic).
• PREPARE: Prevention of persisting pain after breast cancer treatment by i-CBT (KWF-sponsored study).
   

Mechanism of Spinal cord stimulation in neuropathic pain.
From: Smits H, van Kleef M, Holsheimer J, Joosten EA.(2013) Experimental spinal cord stimulation and neuropathic pain: mechanism of action, technical aspects, and effectiveness.