High-Frequency Surpasses Traditional Spinal-cord Stimulation in First Controlled Trial

A groundbreaking trial testing spinal cord stimulation (SCS) techniques has revealed that higher frequency SCS utilizing the 10kHz (HF10) is more effective in application, pain relief and sustainment compared to the lower-level frequencies that are typically used. Researchers from Advanced Pain Therapy in Hattiesburg, Miss. presented their research at the 31st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, which detailed their side-by-side analysis of low-frequency and high-frequency applications — with particular detail regarding the practice of inducing parathesia with low-frequency stimulation. While low-frequency treatments are able to induce parathesia as a form of reactive pain treatment, subjects treated with high-frequency stimulation appeared to have higher quality of life and pain relief without this commonly induced feature. “These results provide important comparative effectiveness data for healthcare providers and clinically relevant information for pain physicians, patients and payers,” the author said. Future research will determine the full application range of high-frequency SCS to determine when low-frequency practice can be replaced or updated. To learn more about this study, click here.