Your life is overshadowed by chronic pain, and you don’t want to make an already bad situation worse by having surgery or taking potentially risky medications. This admirable goal is within your reach thanks to neurostimulation or, more specifically, spinal cord stimulation.
When it comes to managing chronic pain, we share the same goals, which is why the team here at Genesis Orthopaedic and Spine offers spinal cord stimulation.
Here’s a look at how this innovative approach to pain management is helping scores of people reclaim their lives.
Going straight to the source with spinal cord stimulation
Your nervous system is divided into two main parts:
- Your central nervous system, which includes your brain and spinal cord
- Your peripheral nervous system, which are all the nerves that branch out into your body
Your spinal cord acts as a conduit that connects your central nervous system to your peripheral nervous system.
Through spinal cord stimulation, we implant a device near your spinal cord that delivers electrical impulses that interfere with the pain messaging between your nerves and your brain.
While we still don’t understand the exact mechanisms behind the success of spinal cord stimulators, we do know that the electrical impulses work to garble the communication between your nerves and your brain, reducing your pain.
As a testament to its success, 50,000 spinal cord stimulators are implanted each year around the world, helping people find much-needed relief from chronic pain.
Candidates for spinal cord stimulation
Some of the best candidates for spinal cord stimulation are those who have issues in their spines, such as:
- Degenerative disc disease
- Spinal cord injuries
- Chronic neck pain
- Back pain after surgery
- Failed back surgery syndrome
- Osteoarthritis
- Spinal stenosis
Outside of your back, spinal cord stimulation can also play a valuable role in reducing the pain that comes with more widespread issues, such as fibromyalgia or peripheral neuropathy.
The many advantages of a spinal cord stimulator
There are several advantages that come with spinal cord stimulation, not the least of which are avoiding invasive surgical solutions and eliminating the need for potentially addictive painkillers.
We’ve also gained a better understanding of how to optimize spinal cord stimulation for each person, as we can adjust the amplitude, pulse width, and frequency of the electrical impulses to best suit your needs.
Another reason why we like this approach to managing pain is that once you reach a comfortable level of pain relief, you can take further steps to manage your pain through physical therapy, which delivers great long-term results. To help, we’ve added a valuable member to our team — Nischal Patel, Doctor of Physical Therapy.
If you’d like to explore whether spinal cord stimulation may hold the key to your pain relief, contact one of our offices in Westfield or West Orange, New Jersey, to set up an appointment.
