Finding Relief Without Heavy Medication: How Spinal Cord Stimulation “Interrupts” Your Pain

A spinal cord stimulator (SCS) is a medical device used to treat severe pain.

It’s not a first-line treatment, but it may be a good option if more conservative options, like physical therapy and medications, haven’t helped your pain.

At Interventional Pain Center, anesthesiologist and fellowship-trained interventional pain medicine physician Dr. James Stephens offers spinal cord stimulation to our patients at Legacy Office Park in Norman, Oklahoma, who are in severe pain and haven’t responded to other treatments.

SCS is also a good option if you’re looking for alternative options to strong medications to manage your pain.

Here’s what’s involved.

How does a spinal cord stimulator work?

A spinal cord stimulator consists of a generator (a battery pack) and electrodes (thin wires). Dr. Stephens uses live X-ray guidance to implant the electrodes in the area around your spinal cord (the epidural space) and the generator under your skin near the upper buttocks, abdomen, or flank.

A remote control connected to an antenna outside your body allows you to send electrical impulses to the generator when you feel pain. The impulses interfere with the nerves’ pain signals to your brain, altering how your brain perceives them. The result is the diminished sensation of pain.

Traditional SCS often creates a tingling sensation, called paresthesia, that overlaps with the signals coming from the painful region, interrupting them before they reach your brain. Newer stimulation technologies, such as high-frequency and burst stimulation, achieve the same result without noticeable sensations. These are known as “sub-perception” therapies.

What conditions can SCS treat?

Dr. Stephens may recommend a spinal cord stimulator to help manage:

Angina or other types of chest pain
Back or neck pain
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Diabetes-related neuropathy
Neuropathic pain
Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS)
Phantom limb pain
Postherpetic neuralgia
Spinal cord injuries

Research is ongoing to discover how SCS can treat other types of chronic pain.

What is the process for getting SCS?

Generally, good candidates for getting an SCS are those who haven’t received sufficient pain relief with medications, conservative therapies, or other surgeries, and who don’t have an untreated psychiatric disorder that would decrease the effectiveness of the treatment.

If Dr. Stephens determines you’re a good candidate for placement, you will go through two procedures.

The first procedure is a week-long trial. He implants the electrodes in the epidural space, but the generator and remote control remain outside your body. If the setup reduces your pain by at least 50%, he considers the trial a success and schedules a second procedure to implant the electrodes and generator permanently.

If you’re in chronic pain and conservative therapies haven’t worked for you, it may be time for a conversation about what spinal cord stimulation can do to help.

Call Interventional Pain Center at 405-759-8407, or use our online booking tool to schedule a consultation with Dr. Stephens today.