[Iontophoretic administration of vinblastine in the control of refractory spinal root pain and postherpetic neuralgia].

Iontophoretic administration of substances which influence the function of microtubuli in the peripheral nerves is one of the new ways how to suppress some types of refractory chronic pain. Based on a number of experimental data and encouraging clinical results, the authors used in the submitted work repeated iontophoretic administration of 0.01% Vinblastine (G. Richter, Hungary) into the painful zone in a group of 20 patients with several types of non-malignant pain. Objectivization of the evaluation was partly also due to the authors' own version of McGill Pain Questionnaire, along with the graphic presentation of algetic zones. Clinically detectable mitigation of pain was achieved in 14 subjects, in eight improvement persisted for more than six months and one year resp. No serious undesirable side-effects were observed in the investigated subjects.