Anyone tried Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain?

I have had a spinal cord stimulator for a year now. It has reduced my lower back pain by about 40 percent. But my back pain continues to worsen so other parts of my back are involved. Medtronic technicians have been very helpful. It was definitely a worthwhile decision.

Yes...but it was in 2015. I am told many advances have been made since then, but am leery to go that route again. I had a St. Jude unit implanted by the team at Aurora Hospital, Grafton, WI after a spinal laminectomy/fusion. After several weeks, we were still working to 'fine-tune' the settings, and then an infection caused the entire device to be removed. (SPOILER ALERT: REMOVING the device is a LOT tougher than the original INSTALLATION, which was tolerable.

@martyk It's not that I don't recommend it. It just didn't work for me, but it must be effective for enough people to keep implanting them.

You just never know until you try it.

Jim

Does anyone have an opinion about the use of SCS for severe degenerative lower back scoliosis?

My late husband had a Spinal Stimulator inserted in his lower spine and had very good results, as did a good friend of ours. (Sorry, he did not have scoliosis, just degenerative disease.)

Do you know the brand of stimulated they had?

I had a stimulator inserted last December and it is not working. I am having to take more pain pills than I did before the surgery.

Hello @mikedeppen and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I wanted to bring you into an existing discussion on spinal cord stimulators, so you will notice that I have moved your post here:
- Anyone tried Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain?:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/spinal-cord-stimulation-2/
How long have you been living with scoliosis and was a SCS recommended recently?

Thank you, Amanda!
I am an 80-year-old male that was diagnosed with lumbar scoliosis AFTER entering the U.S. Army at the age of 23. At that point there was no pain associated with this condition, and there was no recommendation for any type of treatment such as a back brace and/or physical therapy. As a result, I did nothing because I wasn't experiencing any discomfort or pain of any sort. Fast forward to five years ago when I turned 75 years of age. At this point I began to have a great deal of pain and discomfort in my lower back and sought the help of a number of spine specialists and orthopedic surgeons who discussed possible corrective back surgery, as well as physical therapy and pain medications and spinal injections. I quickly ruled out surgery based on research I did, and the P/T and medications and injections were not eliminating the chronic pain. Recently I was referred by my V.A. primary care doctor to see a pain management specialist, who was the first doctor that recommended I go through the trial period offered by Boston Scientific to see if this therapy may provide me with relief from this chronic pain. Since learning of this therapy, I have been doing more research and came across your website. I am now trying to gather as much information about this technology to make an informed decision going forward. Thank you for allowing me to share my "story"!

Mike - courtesy of a RPG in Vietnam, all of my Cs,Ts and Ls were damaged. After two surgeries on each, the neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons said no more. Got referred to pain manager, who recommend the spinal stimulator. I also have a nerve disease (Agent Orange), so I asked my neurologist if the stimulator would help the nerve pain. He stated it would not. Got it anyway and it is a miracle. Cut my spine pain from the Ls 8s, down to 4s. And yes, it helped me decease my nerve pain medication.