The following is a summary of “Relationship between number of prior lumbar spine surgeries and outcomes following spinal cord stimulator implantation: A multisite, retrospective pooled analysis,” published in the April 2024 issue of Pain by Hagedorn et al. 

Despite progress, some lumbar spine surgery patients experience persistent pain, making the impact of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) on such cases unclear.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study exploring the effects of lumbar surgeries in pain relief with SCS. 

They used electronic medical records from five pain clinics for patients with SCS history (January 2017 and March 2020). The inclusion criteria included patients with SCS implants who had prior lumbar surgery. The primary outcome was pain relief based on past surgeries.

The results showed that 1,974 patients had no mean difference in mean pain relief in patients with one or multiple prior spine surgeries (28.2% vs. 25.8%, adjusted ß-coefficient -3.1, 95% CI -8.9 to 2.7, P=0.290). No association between the number of spine surgeries and calculated pain relief (adjusted ß-coefficient -1.5, 95% CI -4.0 to 1.1, P=0.257). No association remained consistent even while analyzing waveform differences.

Investigators concluded that getting SCS after one or more lumbar surgeries had no significant effect on pain scores. The type of waveform from the SCS device also did not impact post-surgery pain scores. 

Source: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/papr.13371