Health

Tiny implant than can zap away back pain

A new implant has been able to 'zap' away chronic back pain for sufferers in just minutes
A new implant has been able to 'zap' away chronic back pain for sufferers in just minutes A new implant has been able to 'zap' away chronic back pain for sufferers in just minutes

A new tailor-made implant could provide relief from back pain in just minutes, reports the journal Expert Review of Medical Devices.

The fast-acting, painless treatment blocks pain signals from reaching the brain by stimulating the spinal cord with mild electrical currents.

It can treat up to 32 areas of the back at the same time and takes, on average, just over 11 minutes to reduce pain levels by more than five-fold, research suggests.

Some patients experienced benefits in as little as nine minutes after starting the treatment, which is called fast-acting sub-perception therapy (FAST).

And now doctors at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, along with other hospitals, are trialling the device on more patients.

Chronic back pain is defined as continuous pain that lasts for more than 12 weeks, and affects one in six adults, according to the charity Versus Arthritis.

Treatments range from gentle exercise, painkillers and physiotherapy, to steroid injections and surgery.

The FAST approach involves implanting a tiny generator, about the size of a small pocket watch, under the skin of the lower back.

Wires and electrodes are tunnelled to the sites of pain at various points of the spinal column. Pulses of electricity are transmitted through them to the painful areas via a hand-held controller.

Up to 32 electrodes, each around 1mm in diameter, can be connected to the generator, allowing doctors to tailor the treatment to the needs of the patient.

The electrical pulses interfere with pain signals travelling along nerves to the brain, blocking them or reducing their intensity.

The new research - conducted in the United States, UK and Spain - shows that the FAST approach not only reduces pain at the targeted point, but in the immediate surrounding area, too.

And unlike other stimulators, the treatment is very fast-acting and sensation-free.

There is none of the tingling feeling associated with other forms of electrical stimulation, such as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), often used for mild to moderate pain and during childbirth.

The research, involving 41 patients with chronic back pain, shows that the device has almost immediate effects.

Before the device was implanted the average pain level score, based on a medical scoring test, was 8.4, but it dropped to 1.3 within an average of 11.2 minutes of using the device. These lower pain levels persisted for months, according to the report.

And even a year after the device was implanted, the average pain score was only 1.6.

"This multi-centre study provides the first report of novel FAST seen to induce rapid and sustained analgesia [relief from pain] in patients treated for chronic pain," said the researchers.

Commenting on the study, Ian Harding, an orthopaedic consultant at North Bristol NHS Trust, said: "The causes of back pain are numerous and treatment should be targeted to the cause if possible.

"This is an interesting concept that may help some patients with back pain, but we need bigger studies and more research to define its role further."

© Daily Mail