Your life has changed dramatically because of ongoing back pain and you want to find a long-lasting and, most importantly, effective solution that can help you get back to your life. If you want to learn more about how we may be able to accomplish this without resorting to medications or surgery, read on to learn about neurostimulation.
At Bux Pain Management, Dr. Anjum Bux and our team of pain management specialists are all too familiar with the impact that chronic back pain can have on your life, and we feel it’s important that you understand your options.
One such option is neurostimulation, and we take a closer look at this back pain treatment here.
How neurostimulation work
When you have chronic pain in your back, usually in your lower back, the odds are good that a spinal nerve is being compressed, causing it to become hyperactive. When a spinal nerve is irritated in this way, it sends out pain signals through your spinal cord that travel to your brain.
With neurostimulation, we garble this messaging with electrical impulses, which prevent most of the pain signals from reaching your brain.
Introducing the spinal cord stimulator
To accomplish this type of neuromodulation, we use a spinal cord stimulator.
First, we implant tiny electrodes into the area along your spine where we believe you have an overactive spinal nerve. These electrodes are controlled by a small generator, or battery pack, that we place under your skin, usually in your abdomen or some other unobtrusive area.
When we first place your spinal cord stimulator, we try different frequencies and impulse strengths to determine which work best. Once we’re satisfied that we’ve found the right position for the electrodes and the right combination of electrical impulses, we implant the battery pack.
After we’ve implanted the spinal cord stimulator, we supply you with a remote control so you can operate the unit as needed.
Rest assured, we first conduct a trial run to ensure that neurostimulation provides you with meaningful relief before we implant your spinal cord stimulator.
The many advantages of neurostimulation
About 50,000 spinal cord stimulators are placed each year, and this number is rising thanks to our improved understanding of the technology, not to mention its success in helping people find relief from pain.
When we say improved understanding, over the past 50 years, the medical community has made adjustments in the following areas for improved outcomes:
- Stimulation target zones
- Placement of the electrodes
- Electrical parameters
- Equipment design
As a result, we’ve been able to help people finally find relief from chronic back pain, including after failed back surgery.
Aside from the good success rates, neurostimulation is a great choice because it’s a minimally invasive approach to pain management that doesn’t involve surgery or medications.
If you’d like to explore whether neurostimulation can help you to find the back pain relief you so desperately want, contact one of our locations in Lexington, Cynthiana, Maysville, or Danville, Kentucky, to set up a consultation.
