4 Reasons Why People Choose Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain

Every day is a struggle thanks to chronic pain that isn’t responding well to anything you’ve tried so far. Whether medications are falling short or surgery didn’t remedy the problem, you’re still in pain and you just want a more comfortable way forward.

It may be time for you to explore neuromodulation in the form of spinal cord stimulation, which offers some great benefits over other pain management solutions. To give you an idea, board-certified neurosurgeon Dr. Ali H. Mesiwala presents some of the reasons why our patients prefer spinal cord stimulation.

How neuromodulation and spinal cord stimulation works

Before we get into why many of our patients have found success with spinal cord stimulation. let’s quickly review how this approach to pain management works.

This treatment is a form of neuromodulation in which we place electrodes near nerve roots and fibers in your spinal cord that are actively sending pain messages to your brain. The device emits mild electrical pulses that interfere with this messaging.

The spinal cord stimulator is powered by a generator pack that we place just under your skin, usually in your abdomen.

Reasons why patients prefer spinal cord stimulation

Now let's look at some of the many reasons why 34,000 people around the globe get spinal cord stimulators implanted each year, including some of our patients here.

1. Less reliance on opioid-based medications

Let’s start with a pain management issue that’s very serious and even life-threatening — an opioid use disorder. Yes, opioid-based medications are effective for relieving pain, but they’re also highly addictive. To put some numbers to this problem, the American Medical Association estimates that between 3% and 19% of people who use opioid painkillers become addicted to them.

And an opioid addiction opens the door to far more problems than the original pain the medications were trying to tackle.

When successful, spinal cord stimulation allows patients to greatly reduce or even eliminate painkillers from their pain management equations.

2. Starts with neuromodulation trial run

To make sure that spinal cord stimulation provides you with adequate pain relief, we first conduct a trial run in which we insert electrodes along your spinal cord and supply you with an external generator. We only need to use a hollow needle to place the electrodes and we activate them while you’re with us to make sure they’re in the right position to deliver pain relief.

When you leave, you wear the generator on a special belt, which we preprogram to the right ranges. From here, you operate the battery pack to control the electrical impulses.

Most trial runs last about a week, sometimes less, which allows us time to determine whether the spinal cord stimulation is working for you. If it does, you return and we implant a more permanent spinal cord stimulation system.

3. Pain management at your fingertips

Another aspect that our patients prefer is that they are in control of the spinal cord stimulation. Once Dr. Mesiwala surgically implants the spinal cord stimulator, you have a remote control that allows you to activate the stimulator, and you can control the strength of the impulses from a predetermined range.

4. Spinal cord stimulation — beyond back and neck pain

Spinal cord stimulators are often used for people who have failed back surgery or for people who can’t have back surgery to remedy their chronic pain, but these aren’t the only uses.

Just a few years ago, the FDA approved spinal cord stimulation for diabetic neuropathy, which affects about half of people with diabetes.

This is why the number of people using neuromodulation and spinal cord stimulation is on the rise, as we’re finding that it’s an effective solution for many different types of chronic pain.

If you’d like to find out whether spinal cord stimulation holds the key to unlocking your pain relief, please contact one of our offices in Newport Beach, Marina del Rey, or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to schedule a consultation with Dr. Mesiwala.