Other Treatments for Visceral Pain

As visceral pain may bring tremendous and persistent suffering for patients, researchers have paid great attention to the study and development of various treatments for resolving the torment. In the previous chapter, technologies such as neuroregulation therapy (nerve block) and neuroelectrical stimulation technique (spinal cord stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, motor cortex stimulation, deep brain stimulation, etc.) were introduced in detail as effective treatment methods for visceral pain that cannot be managed by medical treatments. Apart from these, for patients with intractable visceral pain who did not benefit from conservative treatment and whose quality of life is seriously affected, surgical therapy (anterolateral cordotomy, anterior commissurotomy) may also be effective, and psychotherapy has become popular in treating visceral pain as more attention has been paid to the psychological factors of patients. In this chapter, surgical therapy and psychological mechanisms and treatment of visceral pain will be introduced.