Thinking about clinical trial - dr. wants me to do neurostimulator -

[marigenius]

Hi,

Past three years I have had physical therapy at least 10 epidural injections. I have constant back spasms in neck shoulder and upper back, which are somewhat controlled by yoga and at times muscle relaxers.
Biggest problem right now is the stenosis, which is really affecting my feet, legs, and pelvis and has restricted my activities quite a bit.

Right now my psyiatrist wants me to have a neurostimulator installed and the thoughts of that really scare me. From what I am gathering on the internet, this is used after a surgery if pain is still an issue.

I am also a good candidate for a clinical trial where the superioninterspinous spacer is being tested. I would get either that inserted by a psyiatrist, or the x-stop inserted by a neurosurgeon.

Any thoughts or recommendations or similar stories would be welcome. Thank you.

[Gilbert P]

Hi Marigenius

to our site we are all here to help each other as best we can.

I also have stenosis at L4-L5, L5 -S1 Dr in Salt Lake wanted to install a stimulator as a trial,now pursuing other options.
Do your research get as many opinions as possible.

All The Best

Gil

[Keano16]

Sstandard for interspinous implants like Coflex, X-Stop and similar, is that they are used on elderly people (above 40-50 years old).

X-Stop, Coflex and similar implants are good choice and some of this implants are also used as dynamic stabilizationsystem for lumbar spine.

If you are younger, you need to see what causes your stenosis (foramen, disc..) and then threat it with appropriate surgery (foraminotomy, discectomy). Of course, with minimally-invasive approach!

[marigenius]

Thank you both for your replies. So happy to have found this forum.

I am 61, so I am a candidate. Do you know if there is a better result with either of the spacers you mentioned? I am a little leary of the clinical trial as a psyiatrist will be doing the surgery for the superion (the trial spacer) if I am randomly selected for that.

The thing I am having trouble with is why my dr. ( a psyiatrist) is pushing the neurostimulator so hard. I know the device costs $30,000.00 or so. I guess that is a lot of profit. I do sound sort of cynical, but I can't help that keeps creeping into my head.

[Keano16]

In Croatia and Europe, Coflex is mostly used interspinous implant. It's indicated for spinal stenosis from L1 to S1, on up to two levels. When strongly indicated it shows very good results and success rate.

Main indication is: proved spinal stenosis (by radiological tests) with signs of neurogenic claudication and foraminal stenosis syndrome caused by degenerative processes.

This non-fusion technology enables spine stabilization and restoring of natural anatomic functions, and in some cases it can lead to regeneration of diseased disc due to reduction of abnormal disc activities.

[KanRunMo]

The X-Stop is similar to the previous thread answer. I have contacted Texas Back Institute and that is what they suggested for me. I have not done it yet since I am not sure that would solve all my problems. It will solve the LSS (Lumbar Spinal Stenosis) but I'm trying to find out if it will also allow the discs more room allowing them to possibly gain height. I would certainly trust a neurosurgeon more that psiast(?). Actually I don't know what a psiast is but I would guess they don't have a medical degree. Surgeons and neurosurgeons don't like to do surgery on "older" people because they say their blood vessels are somewhat hardened and more likely to break when they have to move them around to do back surgery. I felt like saying "you better FIND a way to do surgery on older people since there are an awfully lot of us getting older".

[KBear]

Sounds like you are on the right track, doing research and getting multiple surgical opinions. Ask them why they are suggesting what they suggest (sometimes it's because they don't do a certain surgery or it could be because you are not a candidate).