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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2025; 13(33): 112607
Published online Nov 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.112607
Published online Nov 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i33.112607
Short-term spinal cord stimulation for refractory Elsberg syndrome in diabetic neuropathy: A case report
Jia Wang, Xiao-Qian Yu, Xue-Guang Zhang, Li Song, Jun Lee, Department of Pain Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 616400, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Wang J, Yu XQ, and Zhang XG were responsible for data collection; Wang J drafted the manuscript; Yu XQ conducted patient follow-up; Song L and Lee J contributed to manuscript revision and finalized the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province, No. 2023YFS0255.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jun Lee, MD, Professor, Department of Pain Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Alley, Wuhou District, Chengdu 616400, Sichuan Province, China. leej1981@126.com
Received: August 1, 2025
Revised: August 21, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: November 26, 2025
Processing time: 112 Days and 18.1 Hours
Revised: August 21, 2025
Accepted: October 28, 2025
Published online: November 26, 2025
Processing time: 112 Days and 18.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Elsberg syndrome is a type of sacral radiculitis caused by various viruses. We report a rare case of a diabetic patient with refractory Elsberg syndrome secondary to varicella-zoster virus sacral neuropathy. A suboptimal response to conservative therapy was observed, likely compounded by underlying diabetic polyneuropathy, and short-term spinal cord stimulation therapy led to complete neurological recovery and pain resolution, which was sustained at the two-month follow-up.