Clinical inquiries. When should you consider implanted nerve stimulators for lower back pain?

Low back pain shows signifi cant response to stimulation A 2004 systematic review of SCS for all indications included 51 studies and 2973 patients. Sixteen of the studies, with a total of 616 patients, focused on low back pain, specifi cally chronic back pain and failed back surgery syndrome. Two of the 16 studies were prospective controlled trials, 8 were prospective trials without controls, and 6 were retrospective studies. Both prospective, controlled trials (total of 62 patients) demonstrated statistically signifi cant (P<.05) results with SCS. One measured subjective pain and the other used crossover to the other treatment arm (SCS vs surgery) as a marker for treatment failure.