DRG stimulator for knee nerve pain CRPS type 2

Hey there, I’m sorry this happened to you. I write you to make you aware of the fact thst that the DRG system from Abbott is riddled with issues. I also have lower limb CRPS type 2 and wanted the DRG instead of of a traditional spinal cord stimulator. However, once I got to meet my neurosurgeon to discuss this he simply refused to give me/implant this system on me. Dr. Atkins is a right genius when it comes to stims and pain pumps in
my state, and he knows my specific case well especially since he already operated an intrathecal pain pump in me a few years back. He knows well how hard any form of operation and procedure is on
my body (and my mind) and this is the exact reason why he refused to implant the drg: Even if the drg targets lower limb crps pain better than traditional scs, according to Dr atkins the DRG is so riddled with issues that he has to do revision surgery on as many as 1 in 5 patients within the fist two years of implant. More specifically the main issue with drg system is the poor quality of the leads from the manufacturer. DRG leads are thinner and much more frail than SCS leads are and Dr. Atkins said all this straight to my face. And what is worse, another issue with the drg system is how the surgeon attach the leads onto your root ganglion nerve bundle: If they have to do a revision surgery down the line to replace a broken lead there is a hightened risk that a piece of the lead can get stuck inside your spine, which can cause major neurological issues and it will also render you incapable of ever have an mri done for the rest of your life. Consequently, Dr Atkins no longer implants this system on crps patients. Instead he prefers to implant the newest SCS system from Abbott called Eterna, which has traditional SCS leads that rarely breaks. I feel that Dr. Atkins literally saved me from a lot of heartache by being so honest and up front with me. Most surgeons aren’t, especially since I was so very adamant about DRG being the right system for me. However Dr. Atkins felt it was way too unsafe and unstable a system for me and my specific case. Yet at no point during these deliberations did the Abbott rep ever say anything remotely negative about the drg. Most patients only get to hear all the benefits of the drg, and there is very little focus, if any, on the actual risks for the patients. Most surgeons and medical reps keep quiet about this issue. The profit margin for the surgeon and the med rep is too grand for honesty and they don’t really care about patient safety and protection. I feel I dodged a bullet there cause since I learned this fact about the drg I have posted about it on the crps reddit handle for example. And since this post I have gotten at least 7 messages from patients that are going through exactly what Dr. Atkins warned me about. I tell you all this so that you at least know about it; even if they say the leads are ok doesn’t mean that they are. If you have lost thereapy and can no longer feel any tingle when cranked up high then this suggests a lead issue. Today Dr. Atkins is likely the only surgeon in my city in Texas that implants this system on patients. And if he has to revise as many as 1 in 5 surgeries in my city, I can only imagine how many others that have to face the exactly same problem in other parts of the country. I just wanted to mention all this to you so that you have as much information as possible with regards to your recent stim problems. I obviously hope the leads and the system are ok as I understand completely how unsettling it is to lose therapy like this. Hopefully it will all be fine in the end.