What is the appropriate clinical role of neurostimulation therapies in the management of chronic intractable pain?
Neurostimulation therapies (spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation) can be effective for managing pain in patients with intractable neuropathic pain. Most commonly, these patients have chronic back or leg pain associated with failed back syndrome. Other types of pain that may be managed by neurostimulation include pain associated with arachnoiditis, complex regional pain syndromes (causalgia and reflex sympathetic dystrophy [RSD]), radiculopathies and epidural fibrosis. Appropriate candidates should have failed treatment with more conservative therapies and must meet established selection criteria for implantation of a neurostimulation system.
