Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society
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Determining reduction in pain score during spinal cord stimulation (SCS) trial is important prior to permanent SCS implantation. However, this association remains elusive. We investigate the association between post-SCS pain scores and successful permanent SCS implants. ⋯ Low pain scores after SCS trial are predictive of successful SCS implants with high sensitivity. Males and surgical patients with higher pain scores had a lower probability of successful SCS implant than their counterparts. Larger studies are needed to further elucidate this relationship.
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Observational Study
Cervical Spinal Cord Stimulation Using Monophasic Burst Waveform for Axial Neck and Upper Extremity Radicular Pain: A Preliminary Observational Study.
Cervical spinal cord stimulation (cSCS) is an accepted therapeutic option for radicular upper extremity pain and less commonly for cervical axial pain despite less available literature in comparison with lumbar and lower extremity applications. ⋯ This preliminary study suggests that the use of the burst waveform applied to cSCS results in improved function and decreased pain scores in subjects with axial neck pain with and without radicular symptomatology and cervicogenic headache.
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Burst and high-frequency spinal cord stimulation (SCS), in contrast to low-frequency stimulation (LFS, < 200 Hz), reduce neuropathic pain without the side effect of paresthesia, yet it is unknown whether these methods' mechanisms of action (MoA) overlap. We used empirically based computational models of fiber threshold accommodation to examine the three MoA. ⋯ The model, based on empirical data, predicts that, at clinical amplitudes, burst and high-frequency SCS do not activate large-diameter fibers that produce paresthesia while driving medium-diameter fibers, likely different from LFS, which produce analgesia via different populations of dorsal horn neural circuits.
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Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a recommended treatment method for patients afflicted by failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). Although SCS is shown to be clinically effective, not many patients return to work (RTW). The aim of this study is to assess the RTW rate of these patients. ⋯ Unlike the well-analyzed effectiveness of SCS, RTW remains an underutilized outcome measure. The RTW rate in our series was the second lowest in the reviewed literature. We demonstrated that half of the patients with an implanted SCS either did not resume their work or left their job.