Radboud university medical center starts new therapy for patients with chronic pain

13 minutes ago

General

NIJMEGEN – In the Netherlands, 1 in 5 people suffer from chronic pain. Tailor-made treatment is being sought for this group of patients. Radboud university medical center recently introduced a new further development of an existing therapy.

The Radboud University Medical Center Expertise Center for Chronic Pain sees approximately 1,500 new patients every year who live with chronic pain. Doctors are continuously looking for new developments to treat their patients as best as possible.

An innovative approach to tailor-made pain management is the use of so-called closed-loop neurostimulation. With this method, small electrical pulses are sent to the spinal cord via an implanted neurostimulator. These pulses disrupt the pain signals from the spinal cord to the brain, reducing the patient’s pain. The closed-loop system can adjust the intensity of the pulses from moment to moment so that they feel stable regardless of the patient’s activity.

Neurosurgeon Erkan Kurt recently performed the first implantation of this new stimulator at Radboud University Medical Center. The use of such a neurostimulator in combination with a surgical guide wire has never been done before in the Netherlands. “The closed-loop technology is a major step forward in the field of spinal cord stimulation: from a scientific point of view for the treating pain doctor, but especially for our chronic pain patients. We hope to be able to help many patients with this,” says Kurt.

Closed-loop neurostimulation for pain has recently been implemented. In collaboration with Medtronic, this new technique has now been applied with a surgical electrode.

A patient says: “The pain in my legs and back is already so much less, this feels very good! Very different from the effect I felt before when I also had neurostimulation a few years ago. Moreover, I hardly feel the box (stimulator)!”

In addition, the development of the neurostimulator also focused on ease of use and wearing comfort for the patient. With a thickness of only 6 mm, this is the thinnest device on the market. Additionally, patients implanted with this system can still undergo a full body scan in the MRI.