PENS is a minimally invasive diagnostic therapy, which enables the physician to determine whether a patient is likely to benefit from an implanted stimulation device, although for some patients it may also provide ongoing pain management, thereby avoiding the need for more invasive therapies, with their attendant risks. There are also patients for whom an implanted device is not appropriate and in these cases PENS therapy offers an alternative where other less invasive or pharmacological modalities have failed.
Our first 5 patient were treated using PENS therapy at Tauranga Hospital in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand with great results.
At their first follow up, the following was reported "The hernia mesh repairs have done really well, the woman with the abdominal one has stopped her short acting morphine and is weaning from the fentanyl. The inguinal hernia repair gives pain scores at 1 & 2. The GP with the post Rx pain is also doing very well. The post-herpetic neuralgia not so great, but I suspect that he is better than he thinks because his opioid use is down by 50%, but he still gives pain scores at 6/7"