Device and Method to Selectively and Reversibly Modulate a Nervous System Structure to Inhibit Pain

This patent covers an electrical stimulation device and method that selectively blocks pain signals in targeted nervous tissue for days to months from a single treatment, while leaving motor function, non-painful sensation, and proprioception intact.

The Problem

Treating pain without unacceptable side effects or permanent nerve damage is one of medicine’s most persistent challenges. Destructive techniques such as thermal ablation, cryoablation, and chemical neurolysis can relieve chronic pain but permanently damage the nerve, leading to long-term atrophy, neuropathy, and, paradoxically, more pain over time. Opioid medications carry well-documented addiction risks and systemic side effects. Local anaesthetic injections are non-selective (blocking motor and sensory fibres alike), last only a few hours, and carry risks of nerve toxicity, vascular toxicity, and allergic reaction. Continuous infusion of anaesthetics can last longer but requires a tethered external device for days. Existing electrical nerve-blocking devices for chronic pain all require surgical implantation of pulse generators and nerve cuffs, making them unsuitable for acute post-operative pain, where a temporary block of days to weeks is wanted without surgery. Radiofrequency energy treatments are procedural and avoid take-home devices, but cannot treat large nerves and produce inconsistent outcomes. The result is a gap in pain management: no non-destructive, non-addictive, outpatient-compatible treatment that can selectively block pain for an extended period while sparing motor and sensory function.

What This Invention Does

Avent’s invention is an electrical stimulation system comprising one or more electrodes (monopolar or bipolar, single or arrayed) and a controller that directs the delivery of electrical energy to a treatment site proximate the targeted neural and non-neural tissue of a nervous system structure. The electrical stimulation selectively modulates the targeted tissue to inhibit pain while preserving motor function, other sensory function, and proprioception. A single application can produce pain inhibition lasting from about one day up to approximately one year. The system is applicable to small-diameter and large-diameter peripheral nerves, cranial nerves, ganglia, autonomic nerves, plexuses, and the spinal cord, covering a wide range of pain conditions including acute pain, post-surgical pain, neuropathic pain, chronic pain, and head-and-face pain such as severe migraine.

Key Features

• Selectivity for pain fibres. The stimulation protocol modulates neural and non-neural tissue in a manner that inhibits pain signal transmission while leaving motor fibres, non-painful sensory fibres, and proprioception intact. This selectivity is the central differentiator from local anaesthetics and conventional electrical blocking.
• Extended duration from a single treatment. One application of the electrical stimulation can produce subsequent pain inhibition across a range of durations, from one day through to roughly one year, without the need for a continuously operating implanted device.
• Reversibility. Unlike destructive interventions such as thermal or chemical ablation, the modulation is designed to be reversible, making the approach appropriate for both acute post-operative pain and chronic pain conditions where permanent denervation is undesirable.
• Broad anatomical applicability. The claims cover treatment of peripheral nerves of varying sizes, cranial nerves, dorsal root ganglia, autonomic nerves, plexuses, and spinal cord — a range that encompasses most clinically significant pain generation sites.
• Controller-directed operation. The controller supports current-controlled, voltage-controlled, power-controlled, and temperature-controlled stimulation modes, allowing adaptation to the specific anatomical target and clinical context.

Who Is Behind It?

The applicant is Avent Investment, LLC, the IP holding entity of Avent, Inc., a US medical device company focused on nerve block and pain management technology. The named inventors are Eric A. Schepis, David M. Page, Phillip A. Schorr, Shyamy R. Sastry, Leah Roldan, Natalia Alexeeva, Ryan Caldwell, and Amol Soin. The invention claims priority to US Provisional Application 62/776,908 filed 7 December 2018. This Australian application is a divisional of AU 2025201173, which itself descends through AU 2024202226 and AU 2019261705. The Australian patent attorney is Pizzeys Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys in Brisbane.

Why It Matters

Post-operative and chronic pain management is a major public health and economic issue in Australia, where the opioid crisis and the limitations of existing interventional pain techniques are well recognised. A device that can deliver a single outpatient treatment and produce weeks to months of selective pain relief would reduce opioid prescribing, shorten hospital stays for post-surgical patients, and offer an alternative escalation pathway for patients with inadequate responses to current therapies. The inclusion of head-and-face pain in the claims is significant for migraine and trigeminal neuralgia applications. The IP lineage traces back to late 2018, suggesting clinical development and regulatory activity have been underway for several years. For Australian pain specialists and anaesthetists, this class of neuromodulation device represents a potentially important addition to the interventional pain toolkit if clinical trials confirm the duration and selectivity claims.

Related Concepts

Avent’s approach falls within the broad field of neuromodulation – the use of electrical, chemical, or other stimuli to alter nervous system activity. Unlike destructive techniques such as neurolysis, it targets a reversible, selective block of pain fibres, addressing the key limitation of existing interventional approaches that sacrifice function to achieve relief.

The extended duration claim – up to roughly one year from a single outpatient treatment – would place this device in a distinct category between short-acting nerve block injections and permanently implanted spinal cord stimulators, potentially filling a significant gap for post-surgical and chronic pain patients seeking opioid-sparing alternatives.

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AU 2026201830 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 2 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.