Damaged nerves in your spine can cause chronic, debilitating pain that prevents you from living your life. The pain may affect your neck, back, arms or legs and cause burning, shooting, or tingling sensations.
At The Spine Care Center, we strive to provide safe, long-lasting pain relief procedures designed to improve your quality of life. We offer comprehensive treatment options, including spinal cord stimulators.
A spinal cord stimulator is a device that is implanted beneath your skin. Thin wires lead from the device into your spine. These wires allow small electrical signals to travel from the device to your nerves. The electrical signals stimulate the nerves, preventing pain signals from reaching your brain. These signals relieve pain and even create a pleasant sensation for many patients.
You may be a candidate for a spinal cord stimulator if you have chronic pain, or failed back surgery syndrome. To ensure the spinal cord stimulator will help you, your doctor will perform a spinal cord stimulator trial first. The trial will last just a few days. If your trial is successful and the stimulator helps alleviate your back pain, you may be recommended to undergo a permanent implantation of a spinal cord stimulator.
The Spine Care Center is one of the most talented facilities in the country for spinal cord stimulation. We have successfully implanted hundreds of spinal cord stimulators with excellent results, and we would love to help you find lasting back pain relief, too!
You will probably not need to do much preparation before your trial begins. Your doctor may ask you to stop taking certain medicines before your procedure. Always tell your doctor about any medicines, including herbs and supplements, you take.
At The Spine Care Center, we perform spinal cord stimulator trials in the comfort of our advanced procedure suite, which is located inside of our office in Manassas. The entire procedure takes between 30 to 90 minutes.
First, your doctor will use a local anesthetic to numb the area of your back where the wires will be placed. They will also inject a contrast dye into your back that shows up on an X-ray. They will use live X-ray guidance to place a needle into the fluid-filled area around your spinal nerves. Once the needle is in place, they will guide the wires through the needle and into your spinal nerves.
After the wires are in place, they will then turn on the stimulator. You should immediately feel pain relief. Your doctor can adjust how strong the frequencies are and how frequently they are sent in order to provide you with maximum back pain relief. Your doctor will then bandage the wires and stimulator into place. You will wear the stimulator for a few days to see if it continues to relieve your pain.
After your procedure, you will need to stay in our office for approximately 30 minutes to ensure that you have fully recovered. You will be closely monitored while you recover. During this time, we will also teach you how to use the stimulator device. You will not be able to get the trial stimulator wet while you are wearing it or participate in any strenuous activities that may pull the wires out of place.
After a few days, you will return to our office to have the wires removed. We will ask you a series of questions in order to determine how well the stimulator worked for you. If you were able to return to normal activities — even with minimal pain — your trial might be considered a success.
You will be scheduled for a permanent spinal cord stimulator if the trial is successful. The permanent stimulator is implanted in a minimally invasive manner.
Don’t live in pain for another day. The Spine Care Center is here to help. Call our office or email us to schedule an appointment.