Introduction: Although commonly applied to radicular neuropathies, SCS treats axial pain when careful selection criteria and implant techniques are utilized. Additionally, SCS can impact non-pain measures such as patient satisfaction and quality of life. Here, we report the clinical outcomes of SCS for axial back and radicular pain in patients with a variety of pain etiologies.

Methods: A researcher uninvolved in patient care conducted scripted telephone interviews with an inclusive, sequential series of patients implanted with Precision™ SCS systems (Boston Scientific, Valencia, CA) at a single pain management practice. Pain ratings and non-pain outcomes were tabulated.

Results: Fifty patients (15 months average post-implant) were interviewed. Approximately two-thirds were implanted for axial back pain, whereas 1/3 of the sample had primarily radicular pain.

Across all patients, SCS relieved 56% of overall pain. Patients with radicular pain reported 61% pain relief in their limbs, while patients for whom axial back pain was the primary complaint realized relief of 54% of their back pain. After SCS implantation, over half of all patients reduced their use of opioid medications, and made fewer pain-related doctor's visits. Additionally, patients were better able to cope with the remaining pain (88%), returned to work or hobbies (60%), had a higher quality of life (80%), and would ‘do it all again' (88%). In all of these non-pain assessments, more patients with axial back pain reported good outcomes than those with radicular pain.

Conclusions: We observed excellent outcomes, including for patients with pain in the axial back, a location generally considered difficult to treat with SCS. In fact, in many cases we found better outcomes for patients with back pain relative to those with radicular pain. Based on these outcomes and its minimally invasive and reversible nature, SCS represents an attractive treatment option for intractable pain conditions including back pain.