High cervical spinal cord stimulation after failed dorsal root entry zone surgery for brachial plexus avulsion pain.

BACKGROUND: Many patients had intractable pain after brachial plexus avulsion. This article describes a feasible method of high cervical SCS for a patient who failed in DREZ surgery to treat the pain. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 70-year-old man had right brachial plexus avulsion after a car accident 15 years ago. He complained of chronic spontaneous pain over his right upper limb since then. Two DREZ surgeries failed to relieve the pain. The pain was successfully controlled by high cervical SCS. CONCLUSION: Stimulating the high cervical spinal cord is effective for treating intractable pain after brachial plexus avulsion, which the DREZ surgery failed to relieve.