How Spinal Cord Stimulation Can Help Relieve Your Back Pain

Living with back pain can be extremely challenging, as the discomfort follows practically every move that you make. And you want solutions so you can get back to a happy and active life.

While there are many options for relieving back pain, which is the leading cause of disability around the globe, you’d prefer it if they didn't come in the form of pills or surgery. 

The good news is that our team of spine intervention experts at Revive Spine and Pain Center is dedicated to helping patients find nonsurgical solutions for managing pain, including back pain. 

One option that’s becoming more popular is spinal cord stimulation (SCS), and we explore this innovative technique here.

Spinal cord stimulation — how it works

Spinal cord stimulation falls under a pain management technique referred to as neuromodulation. 

According to the International Neuromodulation Society, this approach involves, “The alteration of nerve activity through targeted delivery of a stimulus, such as electrical stimulation … to specific neurological sites in the body.”

In plainer speak, when you’re in pain, your peripheral nerves send electrical signals to your brain, which interprets them as pain. With a spinal cord stimulator, we disrupt these signals with alternate electrical currents that interrupt the pain signaling.

While SCS can be used for pain most anywhere in your body, the 40,000 devices implanted in Americans each year are largely for spine-related pain, which makes sense given that your spine contains 31 pairs of nerve roots.

The many benefits of spinal cord stimulation

There are many reasons behind the rising popularity of spinal cord stimulation, such as:

Reduction in pain medications

More than half of people who are prescribed painkillers and opioid-based medications misuse them, which places them at great risk for addiction.

With SCS, you could reduce your need for these medications, which greatly reduces your risk for addiction. Studies suggest that patients with intractable spine or limb pain could reduce their use of pain medication, although more research is needed.

A less invasive solution

When dealing with back pain, many people don’t want to add to the discomfort with painful surgery. Spinal cord stimulation is a minimally invasive solution that doesn’t affect the anatomy of your spine. 

To implant a stimulator, we make very small incisions to thread electrodes into the area where your nerves are overactive. We also make a small incision to implant the stimulator's battery pack just beneath your skin.

A reversible treatment

Should you want to stop spinal cord stimulation, reversing the treatment is incredibly easy. We simply remove the electrodes and battery pack.

SCS is under your control

Another aspect that our patients appreciate is that you’re in charge of the level of stimulation, which you control with a remote, and the range of stimulation is pre-programmed.

As you can see, SCS is a great choice for combating chronic back pain, as it’s effective and the risks and complications are minimal.

If you’d like to explore whether SCS is right for tackling your back pain, we invite you to contact us at one of our conveniently located offices in Marlton, Hamilton Township, Northfield, or East Brunswick, New Jersey, to schedule a consultation.