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Back-pain device implanted in first UK patient

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A pain-management device developed in the US has been implanted into a patient for the first time in the UK by doctors at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital in London.

The Medtronic RestoreSensor neurostimulator treats chronic back pain using Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS), a process where mild electrical pulses are delivered to the spinal cord to mask the body’s pain signals and replace them with a tingling sensation.

The neurostimulator is claimed to be the first in the world to use motion-sensing technology. It can sense a change in the patient’s body position or activity level and automatically adjust how much pain-relieving stimulation to deliver. For example, if the patient is lying on their back then a lower stimulation will be delivered, but if they are lying on their front then a higher dose will be delivered.

Until now, patients have only been able to use devices that deliver pre-set levels of constant stimulation, which meant they had to frequently change their pain-relief settings manually whenever they changed position or activity. This often led to Spinal Cord Stimulation users experiencing broken sleep due to inadequate pain-relieving stimulation.

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