Clinical Effect of LG Medipain for Managing Chronic Pain Disorders

Scrambler Therapy is a type of non-invasive neuromodulation. Scrambler Therapy is a different type of pain treatment from the theory that converts pain signals into general sensory information (non-pain signals) generated in the human body through artificial neurons and transmits them to the CNS through A-delta and C-nerve fibers, which are pain-transmitting nerve fibers. The non-pain signal converted through Scrambler Therapy exhibits a pain modulatory effect through CNS education, and eventually, the pain signal is continuously disturbed into a pain-free signal, resulting in pain relief. This will function to normalize neuronal plasticity, the cause of chronic pain, which is different from existing pain treatments based on the gate control theory that temporarily blocks or alleviates the recognition of pain stimuli in the CNS.

Scrambler therapy is similar to the existing TENS treatment, but the treatment process is very different from TENS. TENS is a principle that replaces the delivery of pain stimulus to the brain with a stimulus other than pain stimulus and transmits it to the brain. However, Scrambler Therapy is a treatment that reduces the perception of pain in the brain by scrambling the conversion of pain stimulation into electrical signals in the peripheral nerves, similar to TENS, but can convert pain signals into pain-free signals through repetitive brain learning. So to speak, the investigators could state that it is a treatment method that fundamentally suppresses the generation of pain signals.

According to the researches that studied the effects of the existing Scrambler therapy, 10 times of Scrambler Therapy showed a significant pain relief lasting for more than 1-3 months in various pain disorders such as post-herpetic neuralgia, cancer-related neuropathic pain, and mixed pain. No treatment-related side effects have been reported in Scrambler therapy conducted in previous studies.

The most inconvenient thing about Scrambler Therapy is that it has to be treated more than 10 times during specific period, so frequent visits to the hospital for treatment linked to the higher burden for the patient's cost and even those are not fully covered by the government's insurance. To reduce this discomfort and expand the range of treatment in the era of Corona of untact treatment, LG Electronics devised a home self-scrambler treatment device, LG Medipain for pain patients.

While the hospital Scrambler Therapy device uses up to 5 channels (with 10 patches attached) for treatment and the size of the machine is large, the LG Medipain device uses 2 channels (up to 4 patches attached) and is portable and easy to use which is designed to be convenient. The LG Medipain device has the same treatment function as the existing hospital Scrambler treatment device, but there has been no study on its efficacy and safety. Therefore, the investigators want to conduct this research and find out about the safety and equal efficiency of the LG Medipain Therapy. In addition, in order to explore the mechanism of LG Medipain treatment, 30 patients who responded to treatment will be selected and the investigators have plan to examine their EEG waveform of 32 channel with their consents.

After 2 weeks of applying the LG Medipain Therapy for various chronic pain diseases, meaningful (MCD 30% for each group) pain relief effect will be obtained. The purpose of this study is to check whether pain relief can be obtained after 2 weeks of applying 10 times of the LG Medipain therapy for various chronic pain diseases. The secondary purpose of this study is to compare the pain and related-function improvement effects of the LG Medipain Therapy by pain classification. Scrambler treatment has been reported to have a pain relief effect on postherpetic neuralgia, various cancer pains, and musculoskeletal pain through basic 10 applications. In this study, it is expected that pain relief and improvement of quality of life can be obtained for patients with various types of chronic pain through self-application of the LG Medipain device.