Spinal Cord Stimulators Specialist

What are spinal cord stimulators?

Spinal cord stimulators are small devices that use mild electrical signals to reduce pain. Your Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain doctor implants the stimulator under your skin. It sends electrical pulses through wires connected to the nerves in your spine. These signals change the information your nerves send to your brain.

You might benefit from a spinal cord stimulator if you have a chronic (long-term) pain condition. It’s not the first treatment patients with chronic pain receive — most people find other treatments successfully reduce their pain. But if you’ve tried everything else and nothing works, your doctor could suggest spinal cord stimulation.

What conditions can a spinal cord stimulator treat?

Spinal cord stimulators are effective against many treatment-resistant conditions. Examples include:

• Spinal stenosis
• Herniated discs
• Degenerative disc disease
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
• Lumbar (lower back) pain
• Failed back surgery syndrome
• Sacral pain (at the base of the spine)
• Thoracic (upper back) pain
• Neuropathic (nerve) pain

Back problems often cause pain, weakness, numbness, and unpleasant sensations in the arms or legs. These symptoms are due to radiculopathy — irritation or pinching of nerves in the spinal canal.

These nerves leave the spinal cord, extending throughout your body. Irritation at the nerve root causes symptoms to travel along the path of the nerve. Sciatica (lumbar radiculopathy) is a typical example. It causes lower back pain that goes into the hip or buttock and down one leg along the sciatic nerve path.

What does spinal cord stimulator implantation involve?

Before committing to spinal cord stimulator implantation, you do a trial. Your Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain doctor implants temporary wires into your spine. The wires connect to a stimulator device that you carry around for about a week. You change the settings to match the intensity of your pain.

The trial period enables you to experience the effects of spinal cord stimulation. You can see if the stimulator helps and what it’s like to live with it. If all goes well and you experience worthwhile pain relief, you can go ahead with permanent implantation.

The permanent spinal cord stimulator or implantable pulse generator (IPG) goes under your skin. Your doctor exchanges the temporary wires for permanent ones.

If you’re struggling to find an effective treatment for chronic pain, find out more about spinal cord stimulation. Call Cleaver Medical Group Interventional Pain today or book an appointment online to see if a spinal cord stimulator can help.