An assessment of the treatment of spinal cord stimulation: Postlaminectomy pain or neuropathic pain

Abstract

Neuromodulation has a significant place, among the interventional methods, in the treatment of chronic pain. Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) is the most applied treatment method among neuromodulation methods. SCS procedure is a neuromodulation method used in the failed back surgery syndrome, neuropathic pain, and cancer pain. The 102 patients who applied SCS were included in the retrospective study from 2017-2022 in the University Algology Department. We asked about pain scores in line with visual analog scale degrees (VAS) before and after the SCS procedure, opioid use and compared the patient satisfaction with the procedure. We divided the patients into two groups as those with a diagnosis of post-laminectomy syndrome (Group 1) and those with a diagnosis of neuropathic pain (Group 2). VAS before SCS was 9.11±0.75 in Group 1 and 8.45±0.77 in Group two. After SCS, the decrease in pain intensity was much more distinct in post-laminectomy patients (Group 1), compared to the neuropathic pain patients (Group 2). The results were as follows: Group 1- 1.98±1.40, Group 2-4.08±0.71, p<0.001. The decrease in using analgesics was observed to be much more significant in Group 2. (P<0.05) Patient satisfaction was higher in Group 1 as well (p<0.05). We hold the opinion that post-laminectomy patients benefit more from the SCS procedure than neuropathic pain patients. We observed that the decrease both in pain intensity and the use of opioid analgesics was statistically and overwhelmingly distinct in post-laminectomy patients. According to the results of our study, we think that SCS is an effective and safe treatment method both for post-laminectomy and neuropathic pain patients.