Increased Physical Activity and Reduced Pain with Spinal Cord Stimulation: a 12-Month Study

The purpose of this study was to assess changes in pain and physical activity after replacing a traditional spinal cord stimulation (SCS) implantable pulse generator with a next generation SCS in patients for whom traditional SCS was no longer providing adequate relief of low back and/or leg pain. Subjects (n = 19) who reported that they were no longer receiving adequate relief from traditional SCS were implanted with a next generation SCS. Eighteen additional patients who were receiving relief from traditional SCS were also followed as a control. Both groups (next generation, traditional) were assessed for low-back and limb pain (visual analog scale) and daily physical activity (wearable accelerometer) at baseline and three, six, nine and 12 months following the SCS implant. Relative to baseline, next generation SCS subjects exhibited reductions (p ≤ 0.05 for all) in low-back pain (average reduction of 22%) at every time point, in leg pain (average reduction of 23%) at every time point except six months and increased physical activity (average increase of 57%) at three, six and nine months. As expected, there were no changes in pain or physical activity in the traditional SCS subjects (p ≥ 0.1). In conclusion, pain decreased, and physical activity increased in patients receiving a next generation SCS. Physical activity may serve as an objectively measured marker of pain.