Like traditional SCS, pain relief is achieved through an implantable medical device which delivers low levels of electricity. Given these limitations with traditional SCS, pain physicians around the world have been so excited about Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation, a new, ground-breaking, novel treatment option for patients suffering from CRPS.

Alternatively, doctors may be able to capture your painful areas with stimulation, but it may not provide durable pain relief. Spinal cord stimulation may be a reasonable option to treat the continuous pain in your foot, but you may also experience unwanted stimulation in other areas like your low back or thigh. Let’s say you suffer from complex regional pain syndrome of the foot that has been refractory to the usual conservative treatment. You are distracting your brain from the intense pain by introducing another type of sensation- the sensation of a nice massage.īut as I mentioned, traditional SCS is often not precise or targeted enough for patients with CRPS. You instinctively do it because it makes your toe feel better. Between hopping on one leg and screaming at your furniture, you were probably also rubbing your toe. I often tell my patients the simplest way to think about this it to remember the last time you stubbed your toe. Originating back in, that late 1960s to treat refractory cancer pain, this technology has evolved to successfully help patients suffering from many different types of pain, including failed back surgery syndrome, chronic nerve pain, headaches, chronic pain that develops after trauma or surgery and many more, including CRPS. Traditional spinal cord stimulation has been used to treat a variety of chronic pain states. Change the way our nervous system transmits pain signals by blocking it with low levels of electrical current delivered to the spinal cord via small implantable wires and replacing painful sensations with more pleasant ones, thereby giving patients relief. The idea behind neuromodulation is simple, of course. Even more advanced therapeutics such as Dorsal Column Stimulation (traditional SCS) have mixed results with patients reporting unwanted areas of stimulation or loss of pain relief over time. Injections such as sympathetic nerve blocks are typically short-lived. Nerve-specific medications can have intolerable side effects and low responder rates. In fact, most of the usual treatment available, until recently, have been extremely limited. As most patients suffering from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome know, long-term data regarding standard treatment for this oftentimes debilitating condition has been mediocre at best.

Dorsal column stimulator for crps