A growing crisis is gripping our nation -- millions of Americans are living in severe pain and turning to prescription painkillers for help.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 20% of U.S. adults experience chronic pain. Of those with chronic pain, up to 30% misuse opioids -- that means millions are living in a vicious cycle of pain and addiction.
An implant may help relieve their pain without drugs.
Malia Baird’s addiction to alcohol started when she was 23 and continued for two decades.
“I was actually on my way to an alcohol class that was mandated, and I decided that I would stop at the liquor store and get ready for that meeting,” she said.
She never made it. Baird blacked out behind the wheel.
“By the time I woke up, I had had four or five major surgeries,” Baird said.
Basically, everything below her waist was broken. The pain was overwhelming, and she was addicted to narcotics.
Dr. Giancarlo Barolat, a neurosurgeon at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, introduced a neurostimulator to relieve Baird’s pain. He placed electrodes between her spinal cord and vertebrae. A battery pack was placed under the skin, near her buttocks. The device stops the majority of the pain signals.
“We’re able to, either interrupt or change that signal so that when it reaches the brain, is not perceived as pain,” Barolat said.
The electrodes are controlled by a remote control that patients manage. A study published in the Journal of Pain found that neurostimulation was effective in reducing opioid use by nearly 60%.
Baird uses her stimulator every day and is now completely drug and alcohol-free.
Barolat said anyone who has had pain that lasts for more than six months and has not responded to various treatments is a good candidate for a neurostimulator. The pacemaker does contain a lithium battery and needs to be replaced about every 12 years. The procedure to do that is outpatient and takes about 20 minutes.