If you have chronic pain resulting from conditions such as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), you may have considered spinal cord stimulation (SCS) to relieve your pain. SCS helps patients with CRPS and other types of nerve pain get significant pain relief and achieve better functioning and improved quality of life.
As with any treatment, spinal cord stimulation isn’t appropriate for everyone. At Pain Management Specialists, board-certified interventional pain management physicians Stuart Hough, MD and Ramani Peruvemba, MD, offer a full range of treatments to help manage your pain, including spinal cord stimulation.
Find out about the benefits of this treatment and whether it may be a good option for you to discuss with our team at Pain Management Specialists.
SCS involves placing a device along the spine that sends tiny electrical currents to parts of your spinal cord. This alters the way the brain perceives pain, providing relief. The stimulator is similar to a pacemaker. It contains a battery that produces electrical pulses and has a wire with electrodes that transmits the pulses to your spinal cord. You can adjust the settings using a hand-held remote.
Spinal cord stimulation does not work for all types of pain. Patients who benefit most from SCS are those with low back and leg pain, as well as CRPS. SCS is also beneficial for patients with:
An assessment of your pain is a great place to start. Our experienced team will provide the latest treatment modalities to help relieve your pain and restore the quality of life.
The team at Pain Management Specialists uses a careful evaluation process to select patients who will benefit from SCS. Many patients referred for SCS have tried other treatments without success, such as medications that treat nerve pain, as well as nerve blocks and injection therapies.
It’s important to know that SCS does not eliminate pain completely. On average it provides a 50% reduction in pain, which is significant for most patients with chronic pain. This improvement is often enough to boost function and quality of life.
If our team determines SCS is the right option to manage your pain, you can expect to undergo a trial of the stimulator. This outpatient procedure allows you to test the device for several days to see if it helps with your pain. It typically takes 24-48 hours for the nerve stimulation to start to work so the next three to five days are crucial, as it will determine whether the SCS device will appropriately manage your pain.
It’s helpful to keep track of your activities and pain level to compare it with your pain level prior to testing the device. Doing so provides valuable insight into whether the SCS device successfully manages your pain. Remember a 50% improvement in pain, functioning, and quality of life is considered a success.
Pain Management specialists offer patients who need pain management a range of treatment options that include:
If chronic pain is interfering with your ability to live a fulfilled life, we can help. To get started give us a call to schedule a consultation or send your request online today. We have offices in Rockville, and Frederick, Maryland.
