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Spinal Cord Stimulation
Occasionally, despite numerous different treatments, including
injections, surgery and others, patients still have significant
pain that is unable to be controlled. In these situations,
your physician may speak to you about Spinal Cord Stimulation.
Spinal Cord Stimulation requires the patient to take on
additional level of responsibility, as the end result is
an implanted set of equipment that will hopefully control
their pain.
In order to confirm that this will work, your physician
will first recommend that you have a trial implant. In this
procedure, the physiatrist will implant one or two temporary
wires into your spine through a needle. These wires have
metal electrodes on them, which electrically stimulate your
spinal cord. This stimulation may result in a buzzing sensation
in the area of your pain. It is this buzzing sensation that
masks the pain signals. During this trial implant, the physician
will be asking you if you fell this buzzing sensation where
you usually feel the pain. Once the leads are in place,
they will be secured to the skin. These wires will stay
in place for about a week. During that time, the stimulation
patterns will be adjusted in order to try and maximally
cover your areas of discomfort. Once the trial period is
completed, the wires will be removed in the office.
If the trial period resulted in good results, we will arrange
for a permanent implant, which is done by one of the surgeons
by making a small opening in the bones of the spine. This
will be attached to a pacemaker type battery beneath the
skin.
More detail on this procedure is available on these two
websites:
http://www.medtronic.com/patients/pain.html .
Choose “view the Spinal Cord Stimulation Animation
- Video”.
http://www.TameThePain.com
Choose “view video introduction to neurostimulation.”
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