There are many options to help relieve back and leg pain but many of them don’t have the lasting power. Chronic pain affects 23 to 26 percent of the population and so finding lasting treatments is necessary. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy offers greater and longer-lasting relief for those who suffer from chronic back pain and leg pain.
“This is the first long-term study to compare the safety and effectiveness of high frequency and traditional SCS therapy for back and leg pain,” said lead study author Leonardo Kapural.
SCS therapy sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord using a device which is implanted beneath the skin.
The new therapy is called HF10™ and it uses high frequency pulses. Typically, SCS frequency pulses ranges between 40 to 60 Hz, but with HF10™ the pulses are up to 10,000 Hz.
For the study 171 patients with chronic pain were implanted at 10 pain treatment centers. Ninety patients received HF10™ and the others received typical SCS therapy.
After three months 85 percent of back pain sufferers and 83 percent with leg pain who received the HF10™ treatment experienced a 50 percent reduction in pain or more. In the typical SCS group, only 44 percent with back pain and 56 with leg pain experienced over 50 percent reduction in pain. Over the 12 month study period, those who received HF10™ had lasting effects and reported being “very satisfied” with the treatment.
The findings were published in Anesthesiology.
Source:
http://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=2411790&resultClick=3