Chronic back pain: Motion sensor technology provides ground breaking pain relief

07 July 2010

A ground-breaking pain management device, featuring technology similar to that found in the i-Phone and Wii Remotes, has been implanted into a patient for the first time in the UK.

Doctors at Guys' and St Thomas' Hospitals in London treated a patient using a neurostimulator with motion-sensing technology, similar to the spirit level function in an iPhone or Wii Remotes.

Neurostimulators can treat chronic back pain using Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS), where mild electrical pulses are delivered to the spinal cord to mask the body's pain signals and replace them with a tingling sensation.

Automatically adjusting pain relief stimulation


This neurostimulator is the first in the world to use motion-sensing technology. It can sense a change in the patient's body position or activity level and automatically adjust how much pain relieving stimulation to deliver. For example, if the patient is lying on their back then a lower stimulation will be delivered, but if they are lying on their front then a higher dose will be delivered.

Until now patients have only been able to use devices that deliver pre-set levels of constant stimulation, which meant they had to frequently change their pain-relief settings manually, whenever they changed position or activity. This often led to Spinal Cord Stimulation users experiencing broken sleep due to inadequate pain relieving stimulation.

"Technology we have always dreamt of"


Dr Adnan Al-Kaisy, one of the world's leading pain management consultants, carried out the first procedure using the RestoreSensor device. He said: "This is a very significant improvement on traditional Spinal Cord Stimulation implants because for the first time it will automatically increase or reduce the pain relief the patient receives – particularly during the night. I've been working in this field for 15 years and this is technology we have always dreamt of.

"We expect it to be used with some patients who suffer from severe leg or back pain, or post-surgery problems, who have not responded to traditional therapy or medication. When successful it reduces pain by around 80 per cent, and patient satisfaction and quality of life will be very high."

"Before the operation, pain controlled everything I did"


Robert Mason, 35, from Berkshire, was one of the first patients to benefit from this new technology in the UK. The former agricultural engineer had been forced to give up his job eight years ago after a freak accident at work left him with chronic pain in his back and legs. "You can't really imagine the pain until you experience it for the first time," he said. "It affected everything I did, all day and all night and left me unable to sleep for more than two hours a night for years. On the worst mornings it could take me three hours to get up from the bed and put my feet on the floor for the first time."

"Before the operation, pain controlled everything I did but with this device I am starting to control more of what goes on in my life without fist-fulls of tablets or constantly stopping to adjust the strength of the pain relief. My new hope is trying to learn to walk again without an aid, then back to work and back to a life more familiar with the one we enjoyed before the accident."

Suitable for a minority of patients


Dr Joan Hestor, from the British Pain Society, said: "The new device sounds wonderful. To allow patients better movement would be a significant advance.

"Neurostimulators are suitable only for a minority of patients with unresolved severe back and leg pain, but potentially such devices could help thousands of people each year."

Rolled out nationally


Spinal cord stimulation was approved for use in adults with certain forms of chronic neuropathic pain in October 2008 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE, TA159). RestoreSensor will now be rolled out nationally with 25 hospitals expected to offer the service.

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