Spinal Cord Stimulator

[cooter]

My Pain Dr is suggesting I try out a Spinal Cord Stimulator. The trial would be an external device to see if it will work for me, and if it does, they'll surgically implant the device. Sort of like a pacemaker. Anyone here experienced this device before, and your thoughts.

[Buck52]

I am serious about you need to ask the surgeon  some important questions,  this is rather NEW DEVISE its been out about 10/12  years maybe Longer  ect,,,ect,,,? not sure exactly how long this one has been out  it has logic behind it and it sounds like a good thing for Pain Serious pain  , my wife has a bad back she had serveral Back surgeries  epidural injections and tried everything under the sun    from way back & the Tens Unit never did anything for her pain  charge up turned up all the way...she has to get the pain steroid injections the kind they have to put you to sleep to be able to take the injection.and has had the nerve ends literally burned off/but they grow back after about 6 months to 9 months   ..she has osteoporosis's of the spine  and its literally eat her spine up and is like mush & is curved badly the Dr Said.  she is at the point now No Dr's know what to do for her...she takes some high powered pain medication all narcotics II  she uses the  100 mg  (Fentanyl  patch )along with other high powered pain medications. AND STILL HAS EXCRUCIATING PAIN

. Anyway here about 3/4 maybe longer  and redesign it years they came up with the  STIMULATOR from Boston  Scientific about 10/12 years ago AND REDESIGN SERVERAL TIMES its fairly small, they gave her a trial and let her use it for a couple weeks  just clip  it on her side pants or belt and place the stem leads accordingly...it seem to work in the areas she had the worst pain  but she has pain in her upper back and lower back....the leads would not reach all the pain areas in her Back.

 she had a talk with the surgeon before he it was going to  implant it in her back  ,the surgeon mention to her about her pain areas  that the stemulator would not help her entire back  because he has to place it where the leads will stimulate the worse pain  ..ok he said the leads were not long enough to fit both of these areas on her back...so he said he can go ahead and do the implant  but she would still have the pain in other areas  so why put you through this type of surgery?  but he said it was up to her..she decline  and still takes the pain injections. 

You need to ask your surgeon about the placement of this stimulator leads   for all your Back pain.....its quite a surgery  and can be open to infections fairly easy......but  will it do its job on your back?  sit down and talk it over with the man/woman that's going to do the surgery.

 

I am not trying to discourage anyone on this  but you sure need to think about this long and hard   there's no guarantee this will help ALL your Back Pain.  IT MAY HELP SOME PEOPLE WITH BACK PAIN  JUST IN THE UPPER OR LOWER BACK , BUT ALSO THINK ABOUT THE INFECTION RISK IT HAS.

I WISH YOU THE BEST WITH IT.

Edited January 23, 2021 by Buck52

[evandc]

Pretty sure you aren't talking about the $29.95 TENS Unit that I've had many times over the years. Tell us more, please.

Don

[cooter]

It's actually a device that basically works the same as the Tens unit, but it's surgically implanted with the electrical probes that are connected/touching the vertebrae's. I guess it's been out for a long time.

[cooter]

I was watching a dvd they gave me and it was really interesting. It comes with a remote control to increase or decrease the levels,etc. The only drawback it said was with this implanted, any image device such as an mri would effect it, except xray's.

[tmoe]

cotter,I just had this implant and I which I had this 5 years ago it works very well for me i cant do without it now.It make the back and legs feel much better

and it also help with the narcotics that i was taking. I dont take as near as much pain meds as i once was and that the biggie to me cut down on pain meds.

The stimulation is much stronger than a tens unit cost about $110,000.00.Blood pressure down also. Good luck

[john999]

I have heard good things and bad things about them.