Spinal cord stimulation and cerebral haemodynamics

After the demonstration that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) can improve peripheral blood flow it was Hosobuchi (’86) who first studied the effect of SCS on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in human beings. Our group found that SCS can produce either an increase of CBF or a reduction or no effect. In patients studied with both SPECT technique and TCD, the sign of the induced variations, when present in both, was the same. Cervical stimulation produces more frequently an increase in CBF (61% of cervical stimulations). Our experimental studies confirm that SCS and CO2 interact with the mechanism of regulation of CBF in a competitive way and produce a reversible functional sympathectomy. Further experimental reports suggest that SCS 1) drastically prevents cerebral infarction progression in cats; 2) improves clinical symptoms of patients in persistent vegetative states; 3) suppress headache attacks in migraneous patients; 4) significantly reduces ischemic brain oedema in rats. Following these clinical and experimental observations, Hosobuchi first used cervical SCS for the treatment of cerebral ischemia in man (’91). More recently we confirmed the therapeutic effect of SCS on ischemic stroke in humans, experimental brain injury and cerebral vasospasm in rabbits.