New back therapy offers relief for patients
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - If you suffer from back pain, there is something new now available in the Tri-State that might help you find relief.
It’s being called a superior chronic pain therapy, and a team from Mayfield Brain and Spine is the first in the area to offer it to patients.
It uses what's called spinal cord stimulation, or SCS therapy, which delivers electrical signals to the spinal cord in order to alter pain signals to the brain.
“We did the first high frequency nevro spinal cord stimulator for chronic pain,” said neurosurgeon Dr. George Mandybur.
Dr. Mandybur says the nevro spinal cord stimulator, or the senza as it's called, is the first spinal cord stimulation system to deliver a higher frequency of stimulation than the traditional kind.
This two-year study published in the journal neurosurgery found that when compared with traditional stimulation systems patients that were getting about 50 percent pain relief, the high frequency people were getting about 75 percent.
What makes this unique, however, is it works in a whole new way. It's like nothing we've ever seen before.
To find out if the senza is right for you, a temporary wire is placed in the spine for a few days while you go back to your activity.
“What’s nice is we can do a test run beforehand,” Dr. Mandybur said. “I tell patients it’s like test driving a car before you buy it.”
If you report back it works to reduce your pain.
A permanent stim device is implanted to deliver the high frequency therapy.
They know where to place it because through their studies they've already mapped out where is the sweet spot.
The senza then delivers stimulation without any tingling, burning or prickling sensation. And in the patients Dr. Marc Orlando has had come in for the test drive so far, most of the patients that come in are 70, 80, sometimes 90 percent better.
The risks for something going wrong with this procedure or the system are low according to this team, but the device could be removed if needed. It can be used before or after a person has back surgery and in most cases it is covered by medical insurance plans.
For more information on this therapy and the medical team that is using it to help reduce back pain, visit the following link.
