St Jude Medical launches new spinal cord stimulation trials

St Jude Medical has announced the launch of two new clinical studies that will broaden understanding of the wider uses of spinal cord stimulation therapy.

The first of these studies will involve the Prodigy neurostimulator, the first spinal cord stimulation system able to deliver a proprietary mode of stimulation therapy called burst stimulation. It aims to assess whether burst stimulation can be more effective in managing chronic pain than traditional tonic stimulation.

It is thought that this technique can provider paresthesia-free pain relief, making it useful for patients who cannot tolerate or have failed to benefit from traditional stimulation.

Meanwhile, the second study will evaluate a combination of peripheral nerve field stimulation and spinal cord stimulation, in order to judge whether the two therapies together offer more effective management of chronic low back and leg pain than spinal cord stimulation alone.

Dr Mark Carlson, chief medical officer and vice-president of global clinical affairs for St Jude Medical, said: "Traditional spinal cord stimulation therapy has been used to manage chronic pain for more than 40 years and it works very well for many pain conditions."