Has anyone used the Spinal Cord Stimulator NEVRO HFX?

Posted by denman55 @denman55, Oct 4, 2024

My Pain Management Physician gave me a brochure on this SCS and I wanted to know if anyone has used this model and whether or not you have had success with it. Thanks

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Profile picture for Mariette R. @marietter

Best wishes and hoping this will give you the pain relief you need.

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👍

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Profile picture for mikkimoe @mikkimoe

Just read of big law Suite with the spinal cord stimulators. I had one that almost shocked me to death. Wanted to join the suit but can't find my documentation.

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Spare me.

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In reply to @sully101 "Spare me." + (show)
Profile picture for sully101 @sully101

I used one from Boston Legistics. They tried to program it 6 times, but couldn't find a program that would take away the pain. But everyone's different. I talked to 2 people that have one and are pain free.

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Profile picture for dogsma @dogsma

This is very interesting! I had my first NEVRO placed 7.5 years ago and about 2 years ago it started shocking me - badly! They swore it was impossible to be shocked but after three months of screaming in restaurants, church, stores, home, and other places where my body involuntarily responded to the shock I insisted it be replaced and it was. Unfortunately I did not listen to my doctors who warned me that NEVRO was experiencing significant employee turnover and customer support issues as well as quality issues with the newer products. All of these have affected me significantly since I had the new NEVRO stimulator placed about 1.5 years ago. It is next to impossible to get a call back for program updates - or any other issue for that matter! For example, the charger for my stimulator failed yesterday and I left messages over two days and zero response so my pain level has escalated. I have also read another person’s post on the same charger-failure issue and he was told it would take 2 WEEKS to get a new charger! Seriously? They can’t spend money to overnight a charger? I am calling my surgeons tomorrow to find a way to replace this NEVRO device with one from a different company. I did not have this invasive and risky surgery done to have an uncomfortable bulge in back with no benefit.

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Thank you so much for your input re Nevro. I already have neuropathy 22 years so don't need mor shocks.

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Profile picture for heisenberg34 @heisenberg34

There are likely many people who have had success with this SCS. The important thing is to have the trial, in which you have temporary leads impanted in your intrathecal space and an external battery pack that you wear. Then you give it a try for 5-7 days. Then, if you had decent pain relief(at least 50%), you can go ahead with the permanent implant. Sometimes, the permantent implant doesn't always give you the same relief as the trial. I had the Medtronic SCS trial and implant back in 2018. The trial gave me about 80% pain relief. The permanent implant gave just 50%. But, along with some meds, I was able to get back to cycling, hiking, and working around the house. Not quite 100% normal, but pretty good. Wish you well on your journey.

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My unit was put in by a anesthesiologist. Duke health in Raleigh, NC. No location for the internal power unit was ever discussed. Had to have it removed to different location. 48 staples were placed, because the anesthesiologist had no suturing skills. My experience is the high frequency (10,000Hz) does nothing to help. Had to switch to the 80 hz and this has helped but kills the battery in 3 days. Stay away from the Nevro unit. They are egotistical about the high frequency 10,000 Hz. Dr. J

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Profile picture for velocity7180c @velocity7180c

My unit was put in by a anesthesiologist. Duke health in Raleigh, NC. No location for the internal power unit was ever discussed. Had to have it removed to different location. 48 staples were placed, because the anesthesiologist had no suturing skills. My experience is the high frequency (10,000Hz) does nothing to help. Had to switch to the 80 hz and this has helped but kills the battery in 3 days. Stay away from the Nevro unit. They are egotistical about the high frequency 10,000 Hz. Dr. J

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Interesting. So many different stories from patients and their SCS's. When you say that you switched to the lower frequency unit, do you mean that you had the NEVRO unit removed and a different unit implanted? How effective is this one at reducing your pain on a scale of 1-10? Thanks for sharing.

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I've had one for about 3 or 4 years. Your rep must come switch it off for MRI's, I recently had 10 of them. It worked real well at first. After a couple yeas I started getting electrical buzzes. So I let the battery die. I am now not using it. I also understand there is a law suit against them.

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Profile picture for heisenberg34 @heisenberg34

Interesting. So many different stories from patients and their SCS's. When you say that you switched to the lower frequency unit, do you mean that you had the NEVRO unit removed and a different unit implanted? How effective is this one at reducing your pain on a scale of 1-10? Thanks for sharing.

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Nevro unit can do bi-polar that uses high (10,000Hz) and low freq (80Hz) There are a total of 16 leads (8 per side) placed in the Thoracic portion of the spine.

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Profile picture for michellec49 @michellec49

I've had one for about 3 or 4 years. Your rep must come switch it off for MRI's, I recently had 10 of them. It worked real well at first. After a couple yeas I started getting electrical buzzes. So I let the battery die. I am now not using it. I also understand there is a law suit against them.

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My understanding there is a class action suit regarding a data breach.

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Profile picture for heisenberg34 @heisenberg34

Interesting. So many different stories from patients and their SCS's. When you say that you switched to the lower frequency unit, do you mean that you had the NEVRO unit removed and a different unit implanted? How effective is this one at reducing your pain on a scale of 1-10? Thanks for sharing.

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I did not have the Nevro SCS removed. It took me 3 years to convince the local Nevro support team to allow me to test the 80Hz. Also, runs the 10,000Hz (or 10KHz---thus the HFX name Nevro uses). The low freq values do help but they do take some getting used to. I do believe the current settings help pain by 50 percent. They battery does wear down quicker with the 80 Hz settings. I have to recharge every 3 days. Still have to take my Opiod pain relievers about 4 pm each day. Interesting how medicine is all against Opiod style pain relievers, but they still write scripts every day for them. People who are in extreme pain have little choices. Pharmaceutical companies are not researching new and better pain relievers due to liability concerns.

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