Living with pain after a spinal cord injury (SCI) is something that many are familiar with, if not resigned to. There are a variety of ways in which to reduce or eliminate the pain, but what works for one person’s situation often fails to produce results for someone else.

An option we recently read about is the use of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) treatment - a therapy that is said to relieve neuropathic pain after a failed back surgery. (The original article can be found here.)

Patients in a prospective randomized controlled multi-center study (PROCESS) trial were rated on their level of pain before and after the use of SCS while a control group was given more traditional therapies such as nerve blocks and physical rehabilitation. Out of a 100 participants, 48 percent achieved at least a 50 percent reduction in pain. The control group experienced little or no relief.

SCS is not a cheap therapy, so you will definitely want to research your options and thoroughly consider the costs vs. the potential benefits. If you are interested, this Website has some good information on how SCS works.

Reference:
Manca A, Kumar K, Taylor RS, Jacques L, Eldabe S, Meglio M, et al. Quality of life, resource consumption and costs of spinal cord stimulation versus conventional medical management in neuropathic pain patients with failed back surgery syndrome (PROCESS trial). European Journal of Pain 2008.

Pain management technology for chronic back pain:

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a surgical treatment involving the implantation of a “brain pacemaker”, a device that sends electrical impulses to areas of the brain, primarily the sensory thalamus, in order to relieve chronic pain. This procedure is used for pain that medication has had no effect on, as it’s not exactly simple and there can be some unpleasant side effects.

Fine electrode wires are inserted into specific parts of the brain, and then they are used to deliver continuous pulses of electricity to the brain regions that process pain signals. By changing brain activity though the depression of excitatory transmissions in the thalamus, pain is effectively “turned off”.

The DBS is made up of the implanted pulse generator (IPG), the lead, which is a wire insulated in polyurethane that the electrical impulses run through, and the extension, which connects the lead to the IPG. The DBS is surgically inserted into the body - the electrode is implanted into a small hole (about 14 mm) that is drilled into the skull under local anesthesia, and then under general anesthesia, the IPG and lead are implanted.

Side effects vary depending on the patient, but some that have been documented are “apathy, hallucinations, compulsive gambling, hypersexuality, cognitive dysfunction and depression”. Wikipedia notes that these effects may be temporary, if experienced at all, and are most likely reversible with either change in placement of the stimulator or its removal.

While there are a handful of procedures that you can turn to if medication fails to be effective, this particular one has a high success rate, some 80 percent over time, and is also reversible should it not work.