Aug 8, 2022 09:03 PM
https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...t-opioids/
INTRO: “Ice it”: that’s the age-old commonsense advice to quickly soothe pain. Despite its effectiveness, the low-tech treatment is limited by its bulk and imprecision. But that seemingly crude solution is now demonstrating potential as an alternative to opioids and other pain-relieving drugs. That alternative comes in the form of an implantable device—an ultraminiaturized ice pack applied directly to a single nerve. Implanted in rats, the device produced pain-relieving effects, suggesting its utility for treating people for postsurgical pain or some other forms of localized pain.
“We know there’s a lot of healing power in cooling,” says Theanne Griffith, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work. “It has been used for centuries to treat pain.”
The idea of an implantable cooling device is not new, but existing ones are big and clunky. They can damage tissue and need to be surgically removed. The new device, engineered by researchers at Northwestern University and their colleagues, is made of a soft, stretchy nervelike material called poly(octanediol citrate), or POC. A few weeks after implantation, the dissolvable material simply melts away into the body. “Local cooling is an effective analgesic,” Griffith says. “Conceptually, this shows you can apply this long-standing knowledge in a really innovative way.” The study, co-led by John Rogers of Northwestern, appeared in Science on June 30... (MORE - details)
INTRO: “Ice it”: that’s the age-old commonsense advice to quickly soothe pain. Despite its effectiveness, the low-tech treatment is limited by its bulk and imprecision. But that seemingly crude solution is now demonstrating potential as an alternative to opioids and other pain-relieving drugs. That alternative comes in the form of an implantable device—an ultraminiaturized ice pack applied directly to a single nerve. Implanted in rats, the device produced pain-relieving effects, suggesting its utility for treating people for postsurgical pain or some other forms of localized pain.
“We know there’s a lot of healing power in cooling,” says Theanne Griffith, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work. “It has been used for centuries to treat pain.”
The idea of an implantable cooling device is not new, but existing ones are big and clunky. They can damage tissue and need to be surgically removed. The new device, engineered by researchers at Northwestern University and their colleagues, is made of a soft, stretchy nervelike material called poly(octanediol citrate), or POC. A few weeks after implantation, the dissolvable material simply melts away into the body. “Local cooling is an effective analgesic,” Griffith says. “Conceptually, this shows you can apply this long-standing knowledge in a really innovative way.” The study, co-led by John Rogers of Northwestern, appeared in Science on June 30... (MORE - details)