Prospective Case Series on the Use of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Focal Mononeuropathy Treatment

Abstract

Aim: This case series looks at outcomes in 39 patients implanted using the Bioness Stimrouter system on various isolated mononeuropathies. Patients & methods: A case series of 39 patients with a total of 42 implants were enrolled starting August 2017 at various pain management centers. Results: Of 39 patients studied, 78% of the participants noticed an improvement in their pain. There was a 71% reduction in pain scores with the average preprocedure score of 8 improving to 2 post-implant. Participants noted on average a 72% improvement in activity with the greatest observed in the brachial plexus (80%) and suprascapular nerve (80%) and smallest in the intercostal nerve (40%). Approximately 89% of those implanted with a peripheral nerve stimulator experienced a greater than 50% reduction in opioid consumption. Conclusion: Peripheral nerve stimulators are a new, minimally invasive neuromodulation modality that shows promising early results in our 39-patient case series.

Keywords::

• case series
• chronic pain
• focal mononeuropathy
• opioids
• peripheral nerve stimulation

Financial & competing interests disclosure

KV Chakravarthy is a consultant to Abbott, Bioness, Medincell, SPR Therapeutics, Nalu Medical, Medtronic, Oska Wellness. He has stock options in Nalu Medical and Oska Wellness. He is the founder of Douleur Therapeutics, NanoAxis and Newrom Biomedical. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that Bioness had obtained patient consents for all survey participants in all of the centers as part of standard of care.

Data sharing statement

The authors certify that this manuscript reports the secondary analysis of clinical trial data that have been shared with them, and that the use of these shared data is in accordance with the terms (if any) agreed upon their receipt. The source of these data are: Bioness Stimulator Survey Data.