Spinal cord stimulation doesn ’t help with back pain, says new review

Overall lack of evidence raises questions about the benefitsPeople with chronic back pain may turn to spinal cord stimulation to ease their pain, but a University of Sydney ledCochrane Review found no sustained benefits to the surgery that outweigh the costs and risks.   Spinal cord stimulation, a medical technology suggested to treat people with chronic back pain, does not provide long-term relief and may cause harm, according to a Cochrane Review released today.Spinal cord stimulation is thought to work by planting a device that sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to interrupt nerve signals before they reach the brain.The study reviewed published clinical data on spinal cord stimulation. This included randomised controlled trials, considered to be the most robust method to measure the effectiveness of a treatment in medical research.The researchers analysed the results of 13 clinical trials, looking at data from 699 participants, comparing spinal cord stimulation treatment with placebo or no treatment for low back pain.Cochrane reviews are trusted by researchers, medical professionals and policymakers because they use robust methodologies to combine evidence from multiple sources, reducing the impact of bias and random error that can make individual studies less reliable.The review concluded that spinal cord stimulation is no better than a placebo for treating low back pain, with probably little to no benefits for people with low back pain or improving their qualit...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news