Preliminary results of a randomized study on the clinical efficacy of spinal cord stimulation for refractory severe...

For the last 6 years Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) has been advocated for patients with therapeutic refractory angina pectoris. We studied the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation on the relief of otherwise intractable angina pectoris in a 2 months' randomized study with 1 year follow-up by quality of life parameters, cardiac parameters and complications. Twenty four patients were randomized to either an actively treated group A (12 patients received the device within a 2 weeks' period) or a control group B (10 patients had an implantation after the study period). In both groups one patient dropped out before the implantation but after the randomization. It is concluded that spinal cord stimulation improves both quality of life and cardiac parameters. The latter included a trend towards reduction in ischaemia after implantation of the device in both treadmill exercise and 24-hour ambulatory Holter recordings, with a concomitant better exercise capacity.