Should You Consider Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Back and Neck Pain?

Has your quality of life plummeted because of chronic neck or back pain? Perhaps you’re on disability because of the pain. If you’re retired, you may have given up hobbies or sports that you used to enjoy. 

Whether your neck or back pain was caused by trauma from an accident, wear and tear from 

aging, spinal stenosis, or another reason, you’re seeking a solution that can get your life back on track. 

Our board-certified pain management staff with Apollo Pain Management includes experts who can help you find relief from your ever-present pain. Your doctor may recommend a spinal cord stimulation trial to see if the treatment would benefit you. 

What is spinal cord stimulation?

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) works on the nerves where your pain is located. The treatment sends electric pulses to your spinal cord through a small device implanted just under your skin. The pulses interrupt the pain signals moving from your nerves to your brain. 

Will spinal cord stimulation work for me? 

If you’ve tried numerous other treatments for your neck or back pain and still haven’t found a good answer, you may wonder whether spinal cord stimulation is going to work. SCS doesn’t work for everyone. It may help a little, but not enough to warrant implanting a device under your skin. 

If you have a minimum of 50% improvement in your pain from an SCS trial, you’re a candidate for the treatment. With that degree of improvement, you can likely reduce the amount of medication you take and may be able to quit taking it. 

In order to determine whether spinal cord stimulation works for you, your physician engages you in a trial to see if it will help. 

The trial period for spinal cord stimulation 

You don’t have to worry about discomfort while we prepare you for the SCS trial. You’re under sedation or local anesthesia. Your doctor places a needle in the painful area of your spinal cord. The needle has wires with electrodes on the ends that stimulate your nerves. 

Your doctor may rouse you during the procedure to ask whether you have pain in the areas where he places the electrodes to see if the procedure is helping you. Then you’ll be sedated again for the remainder of the procedure.

If you feel enough pain relief, your doctor asks you to continue the trial for about a week. Our staff attaches a small device on a belt onto your back with strong tape. This stimulator sends signals between your nerves and your brain that interrupt the pain sensations. 

You keep a hand-held device to control the amount of stimulation you need. We program it based on your feedback during the trial procedure.

It’s helpful to you and our staff if you keep a record of what settings you use and the times you need the SCS device — for example, when bending down to look in a file cabinet or when getting out of a chair. 

If your spinal cord stimulation trial is successful 

If you receive significant relief from the SCS trial, our expert board-certified pain management physician inserts a tiny spinal cord stimulator weighing about one ounce just under your skin in the abdomen or buttocks. The device has a rechargeable battery. You have a handheld remote device so that you can manage the amount of stimulation you need. 

If spinal cord stimulation sounds like it might work for you, call Apollo Pain Management’s office in Sun City Center, Florida, today to schedule an appointment. Modern medicine has answers for your chronic pain.