Volume 24, Issue 8 pp. 1336-1340
Clinical Research

Implantable Pulse Generator Site May Be Associated With Spinal Cord Stimulation Revision Surgeries

Shyle H. Mehta MA

Corresponding Author

Shyle H. Mehta MA

Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Address correspondence to: Shyle H. Mehta, MA, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, 909 Walnut Street, Third Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107-5096, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Christian M. Hoelscher MD

Christian M. Hoelscher MD

Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Ashwini D. Sharan MD

Ashwini D. Sharan MD

Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Sara Thalheimer BA

Sara Thalheimer BA

Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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Chengyuan Wu MD, MSBmE

Chengyuan Wu MD, MSBmE

Department of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA

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First published: 19 June 2019
Citations: 9

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Conflict of Interest: Dr. Hoelscher, Mr. Mehta, and Ms. Thalheimer reported no conflicts of interest. Dr. Wu serves as a consultant for NeuroPace and Nevro, and serves on the advisory boards for Medtronic and Micro Systems Engineering. Dr. Sharan serves as a consultant for Neuspera and Boston Biomedical, and has ownership interest in Cerebral Therapeutics, Neurotargeting, Mudjala, and Tigerlabs. Dr. Sharan has received grant support from Medtronic, Abbott, Darpa, NIH, and the Groff Foundation.

Abstract

Background

The use of implantable pulse generators (IPG) for spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in patients with chronic pain has been well established. Although IPG-related complications have been reported on, the association between IPG site and SCS complications has not been well studied.

Objective

To investigate whether IPG placement site in buttock or flank is associated with SCS complications and, hence, revision surgeries.

Method

A retrospective cohort study was performed that included 330 patients (52% female) treated at a single institution who underwent permanent implantation of an SCS system between 2014 and 2018. Patients ranged between 20 and 94 years of age (mean: 57.54 ± 13.25). Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics. Tests included independent samples t test, chi-square test, Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and logistic regression.

Results

There was a total of 93 revision surgeries (rate of 28%), where 71 out of 330 patients (rate of 21.5%) had had at least one revision surgery. Univariate tests demonstrated a significant association between IPG site and revision surgeries (p = 0.028 [chi-square test] and p = 0.031 [Mann–Whitney U test]); however, multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that neither IPG site was more likely than the other to require revision surgeries (p = 0.286).

Conclusion

Although this study found a significant association between IPG site and revision surgeries, the effect of IPG site was not found to be predictive. The IPG site likely influences whether a patient will require revision surgery, but further investigation is required to establish this association.

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