Comparison of Spinal Cord Stimulators from Boston Sci., Nevro

My name is Glen and i have had the Nevro HF10 spinal stimulator implanted since Sept 1, 2021 and the company rep hasn't been able to dial it in on my terrible lower back pain yet. I have complete confidence in this unit because the temporary one that they inserted worked unbelievably well. It's been 6 months and counting with no relief thus far. I'm hoping to reach out and hear from anyone out there about their experiences with this Nevro unit. Please help if you can! Thank You!

I have a Nevro HF10 SCS implanted 7 months ago. I have the same situation as glenjunderwood. I too had pain I have contacted my rep at Nevro for assistance and was getting the run around or it taking days for a call back. I went to pain management, and they looked at me like I was crazy. I have been shocked in my leg while in bed and two days later shocked in the battery implant. I was in severe pain and didn't know where to turn. Finally went back to my pain management doctor, because no help from Nevro. The doctor had me get x-rays of my entire spine and contacted Nevro rep to come and see me at his office. Found out 7 months later after multiple phone calls to Nevo and pain management visits, that my x-rays were mislabeled when the device was placed, and the stimulator leads shifted. So now they have created programs that they hope work, they have not worked so far. The programs that we tried for the 7 months, were set up based on the x-ray of placement of my leads. None of them worked because of mislabeling of the vertebrae on the x-ray. The pain following the two shocks has been unbearable, but no one is helping me to relieve the pain. I do not take pain medication other than Tylenol. My trial SCS worked fantastically and was back to work two days after the procedure. I am a nurse and I have not been able to work since February 14, 2023, due to pain, unsteady gait, and exhaustion. If anyone else has had a similar issue with this stimulator, please let me know.

I had a medtronics SCS implanted back in 2017. Along with meds, it provided decent relief for about 3 years. Then, for some inexplicable reason, it just stopped giving any relief, no matter how many adjustments were made. I will say that my local Medtronics rep was very attentive to my needs, usually meeting me at pain doc's office within a day or two. It was suggested that I have the Medtronics unit replaced with a NEVRO unit. I went through the trial, but they could not get the trial lead in a good spot for testing. The NEVRO rep swore that his unit would definitely provide significant relief. So, I had the NEVRO implanted. They had to use an adapter in order to attach it to the old paddle leads. Guess what? Not an iota of pain relief. No matter how many adjustments were made. I worked with two NEVRO reps who were much more helpful than the people you worked with.
One of the NEVRO reps finally did some closer looking at the original paddle. She said that a number of the electrodes were burned out, possibly causing the lack of pain mitigation. I guess the use of a SCS is a hit and miss thing.

I have a Nevro HF10 SCS implanted 7 months ago. I have the same situation as glenjunderwood. I too had pain I have contacted my rep at Nevro for assistance and was getting the run around or it taking days for a call back. I went to pain management, and they looked at me like I was crazy. I have been shocked in my leg while in bed and two days later shocked in the battery implant. I was in severe pain and didn't know where to turn. Finally went back to my pain management doctor, because no help from Nevro. The doctor had me get x-rays of my entire spine and contacted Nevro rep to come and see me at his office. Found out 7 months later after multiple phone calls to Nevo and pain management visits, that my x-rays were mislabeled when the device was placed, and the stimulator leads shifted. So now they have created programs that they hope work, they have not worked so far. The programs that we tried for the 7 months, were set up based on the x-ray of placement of my leads. None of them worked because of mislabeling of the vertebrae on the x-ray. The pain following the two shocks has been unbearable, but no one is helping me to relieve the pain. I do not take pain medication other than Tylenol. My trial SCS worked fantastically and was back to work two days after the procedure. I am a nurse and I have not been able to work since February 14, 2023, due to pain, unsteady gait, and exhaustion. If anyone else has had a similar issue with this stimulator, please let me know.

It's interesting that you got "shocked" in various positions. One of the claims of NEVRO is that patients don't experience those shocks (paranthesis, I believe they are called) with NEVRO. I used to get shocked by the Medtronics unit if I was lying on my back on a hard surface. I figured that was a good sign that it was working, and would just turn it off while on my back. The relief from the Medtronics unit was pretty good. In fact it turned out to be true that the pain relief would last for a couple of hours even after turning it off. The pain doc told me not to have the unit turned on while driving, just to be safe.

When I received both shocks from my Nevro SCS I was in bed attempting to sleep. The first one was my entire left leg lifted off the mattress and rotated the leg from the foot to the hip. Second on was again in bed attempting to sleep and was woke up by a shock to the battery that is in the right side of my buttocks. The pain was very intense and has not resolved.

My name is Glen and i have had the Nevro HF10 spinal stimulator implanted since Sept 1, 2021 and the company rep hasn't been able to dial it in on my terrible lower back pain yet. I have complete confidence in this unit because the temporary one that they inserted worked unbelievably well. It's been 6 months and counting with no relief thus far. I'm hoping to reach out and hear from anyone out there about their experiences with this Nevro unit. Please help if you can! Thank You!

Have had a Abbott spinal nerve stimulator in my lumbar area for over a year now. I get pretty good relief for lower half of my body but I am also having pain in both shoulders. Was told I need a shoulder replacement but am unable to have surgery due to numerous other physical issues. Not sure what else I can try?

Thanks for responding and so sorry to hear about your continued pain issues. Since I made my post asking about people’s individual experiences, the spine specialist said that because of my Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion and related hardware in my back thar he would potentially not be able to place the leads where they needed to be.

Will just have to learn to live with it and accept that it is now part of my life.

Hope your situation improves !

Blessings,

Don