Why a Trial Period for Spinal Cord Stimulation Is Beneficial

You’re struggling with chronic pain, and you want a long-term solution that doesn’t carry the risks of medications or surgery. After reviewing your options, you’ve decided that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) might be the solution for you.

At Interventional Pain Center, Dr. Sachida Manocha has had considerable success with spinal cord stimulation, helping many of our patients finally find pain relief. Before we implant this device, however, we first conduct a trial period, and it’s this trial period that we’re going to focus on here.

A quick look at spinal cord stimulation

With spinal cord stimulation, we implant a small device in your body that emits mild electrical currents that disrupt the pain signals going to your brain. The treatment targets the overactive nerve fibers that are responsible for your discomfort.

Over the past 50 years, this treatment has helped scores of patients find relief from a wide range of conditions, including:

• Failed back surgery syndrome
• Chronic back and neck pain
• Neuropathic pain in the arms and legs
• Multiple sclerosis
• Complex regional pain syndrome

Today, approximately 50,000 spinal cord stimulators are implanted each year, and each recipient first undergoes a trial period.

Receiving your trial spinal cord stimulator

Here are the main points you should know about your trial period with a spinal cord stimulator:

Why is there a trial period?

The trial period is to make sure SCS provides you with meaningful pain relief before we implant a permanent device. In fact, the FDA issued a statement that says, “Permanent SCS should only be implanted in patients who have undergone and passed a stimulation trial.” The word “passed” means there has to be at least a 50% reduction in pain in order for the treatment to be considered a success.

What’s involved in getting a spinal cord stimulator?

The primary difference between the trial and the permanent treatment is that, with the trial, we don’t surgically implant the pulse generator. For your trial period, we implant electrodes into the area where your overactive nerve fibers are located. Then, we attach them to an external pulse generator that you wear on a belt.

With the external generator, you have complete control over the spinal cord stimulation (you will also have control over a permanent SCS implant). You can turn the pulse generator off and on and decide how strong to make the pulses. Rest assured, we give you thorough instructions on operating the device.

How long is the trial?

In most cases, a SCS trial period lasts 3-7 days, during which you should go about your normal routine and record your results. If, at the end of your trial period, you achieve at least a 50% reduction in symptoms, we can schedule a permanent implantation. If you don’t achieve relief, we can discuss next steps.

If SCS sounds like something you’d like to explore further, book an appointment online or over the phone at one of our locations in Worthington or Newark, Ohio.