Neurology Medical News about Stimulation Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Spinal Cord Workers' Compensation

Become a Member Today!
Register

Most Viewed Abstracts

1. Report Shows Shift in Starting Salaries for Physicians

2. 2008 Exclusive Survey—Earnings: Good news for primary care income

3. Medicare pay-for-reporting effort draws fire from frustrated doctors

4. Debunking Myths in the US Healthcare System

5. Doctors and the DEA Free full text

Your Article Summary

See Latest Articles

(Click the title below to leave the MDLinx Network and go to the Journal's Website)

Spinal cord stimulation for failed back surgery syndrome: Outcomes in a workers' compensation setting
Pain, 11/02/09

Turner JA et al. – The authors found no evidence for greater effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) versus alternative treatments in this patient population after 6 months.

Methods

This prospective, population–based controlled cohort study evaluated outcomes of workers’ compensation recipients with FBSS (“failed back surgery syndrome”) who received at least a trial of SCS (SCS group, n = 51) versus those who (1) were evaluated at a multidisciplinary pain clinic and did not receive SCS (Pain Clinic, n = 39) or (2) received neither SCS nor pain clinic evaluation (Usual Care, n = 68).
Patients completed measures of pain, function, medication use, and work status at baseline and 6, 12, and 24months later.
The authors also examined work time loss compensation over 24months.

Results

Few (<10%) patients in any group achieved success at any follow–up on the composite primary outcome encompassing less than daily opioid use and improvement in leg pain and function.
At 6 months, the SCS group showed modestly greater improvement in leg pain and function, but with higher rates of daily opioid use. These differences disappeared by 12months.
Patients who received a permanent spinal cord stimulator did not differ from patients who received some pain clinic treatment on the primary outcome at any follow–up (<10% successful in each group at each follow–up) and 19% had them removed within 18months.
Both trial and permanent SCS were associated with adverse events.

<< Previous
Cerebral Vasospasm Following Traumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Next >>
Olive Oil and Cognition: Results from the Three-City Study

A Severe Case of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome I (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) Managed with Spinal Cord Stimulation
Pain Practice, 10/27/09 Relevance Score: 93%

Spinal cord stimulation at the level of the conus medullaris
Schmerz, 10/20/09 Relevance Score: 89%

Opioid Use for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Prospective, Population-based Study Among Injured Workers in Washington State, 2002-2005
The Clinical Journal of Pain, 10/20/09 Relevance Score: 88%

Motor cortex electrical stimulation applied to patients with complex regional pain syndrome
Pain, 10/01/09 Relevance Score: 88%

Surgical decompression for notalgia paresthetica: A case report
Microsurgery, 10/12/09 Relevance Score: 87%