User Guide

Safety Information
35
internalized. A retrospective analysis of patients with unilateral leg and/or buttock pain treated initially with SCS and bilateral leg or mainly low back pain treated initially with spinal infusions of opioids was then done. In this study, 42 patients were screened; 26 (62%) patients received spinal stimulation; 16 (38%) received opioids via a spinal infusion pump. Five patients did not receive adequate pain relief with SCS; 3 (7%) of these patients underwent trial spinal infusions and had effective pain relief. There were 4 (10%) patients who underwent a trial of spinal infusion of opioid but did not receive adequate pain relief; these patients were not tested with SCS. Pain severity was rated using a verbal digital pain scale: “On a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is no pain and 10 is the worst pain you could ever imagine, what is your pain now?” 16/26 patients (62%) had greater than 50% pain relief with SCS. In this study, 2/16 (13%) had greater than 50% pain relief with opioids. Mean follow-up was 2.1 + 0.3 years. This analysis supports the use of SCS for intractable low back and leg pain. In this study, 7 (17%) patients suffered complications after implantation of the device; 5 (12%) patients required repositioning of catheter type electrodes and 2 patients required revision of the stimulator generator.