Though the Melzack and Wall's "gate control theory" was subjected to reviews, criticisms and revisions, it was the starting point for new physiopathological studies and for a new treatment of pain based on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), using antalgic micro-impulses (AMI). In order to clarify the effectiveness of AMI, we examined, on the basis of previous studies, different parameters of stimulation in root syndromes. Hundred-thirty patients were randomly divided in 3 therapy groups, 2 of which were further divided into 4 sub-groups. The most effective scheme of therapy was found to be a combination of direct current followed by diadynamic current stimulation and AMI. The study on different specific parameters of AMI resulted statistically not significant, likely because of insuffcient number of cases included into the trial, though the clinical experience strongly supports the feeling that the best parameters of stimulation are 10 to 50 microsec of single impulse duration at 100 Hz in continuous train. Abbout the level of radiculoneuritis, L5 and S1 syndromes had the best results (78.5%) in comparison with the worst-ones coming from the thoracic neuralgia (only 38.5% of good results), with a high statistical significance. The follow-up after 1, 6 and 12 months shows the persistence of good results.

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