• Christopher Shaffrey and Christopher Gilligan.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
• Neurosurgery. 2023 Apr 1; 92 (4): 716724716-724.

BackgroundHigh-impact chronic low back pain (CLBP) correlates with high healthcare resource utilization. Therapies that can alter impact status may provide beneficial long-term economic benefits. An implantable restorative neurostimulation system (ReActiv8, Mainstay Medical) designed to over-ride multifidus inhibition to facilitate motor control restoration, thereby resolving mechanical low back pain symptoms, has shown significant durable clinical effects in moderately and severely impacted patients.ObjectiveTo examine changes in high-impact chronic low back pain in patients treated with restorative neurostimulation at 2 years.MethodsReActiv8-B is a prospective, international, multicenter trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of restorative neurostimulation in patients with intractable CLBP and no prior surgery. For this longitudinal subanalysis, patients were stratified into low-, moderate-, and high-impact CLBP categories using the US Department of Health and Human Services definition comprising pain intensity, duration, and impact on work, self-care, and daily activities.ResultsOf 2-year completers (n = 146), 71% had high-impact CLBP at baseline and this proportion reduced to 10%, with 85% reporting no or low impact. This corresponds with measurements of HRQoL returning to near-population norms.ConclusionIn addition to clinically meaningful improvements in pain and function with long-term durability, the overwhelming majority of patients transitioned from a high- to a no- or low-impact CLBP state. This is typically associated with significantly lower healthcare-utilization levels. The of recovery trajectory is consistent with a restorative mechanism of action and suggests that over the long term, the improvement in these health states will be maintained.Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

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