Can Spinal Cord Stimulation Relieve Nerve Pain?

Hope for chronic nerve pain relief

If you’ve been living with chronic nerve pain that hasn’t responded to traditional treatments, you may feel discouraged and wonder if relief is possible. Spinal cord stimulation is a proven therapy that has helped many people find lasting pain relief and reclaim their quality of life. This advanced treatment offers hope when other options have fallen short.

Understanding how spinal cord stimulation works, who benefits most from this therapy, and what to expect during treatment can help you make an informed decision about whether this approach is right for your situation. You deserve to explore every option available for managing your pain.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an effective option for chronic nerve pain — especially when conservative treatments like medications, physical therapy, or injections haven’t provided sufficient relief. It uses electrical impulses to interrupt pain signals before they reach the brain, offering meaningful pain reduction for many patients.
• A trial period helps patients test effectiveness before committing — temporary leads and an external pulse generator allow you to evaluate real-world pain relief and functional improvements over several days before permanent implantation.
• Candidate selection is critical — ideal candidates have long-standing nerve pain unresponsive to less invasive therapies and undergo careful evaluation (including psychological assessment) to ensure realistic expectations and improved outcomes.
• Permanent implantation is outpatient and tailored — if the trial shows significant benefit, a minimally invasive procedure places the stimulator and leads. Recovery and device programming are personalized to maximize pain control and quality-of-life improvements.
• SCS can substantially improve daily function even if not a cure — most patients experience over 50% pain reduction (with many reporting over 80% relief) and can reduce reliance on pain medications, sleep better, and return to activities they previously couldn’t do due to chronic pain.

Table of Contents

• Understanding how spinal cord stimulation works
• Conditions that respond to spinal cord stimulation
  • Failed back surgery syndrome
  • Complex regional pain syndrome
  • Peripheral neuropathy
  • Other conditions
• Determining if you’re a candidate for spinal cord stimulation
• The trial period: Testing before commitment
• Permanent implantation process
• Life-changing benefits you can experience
• Living well with your device

Understanding how spinal cord stimulation works

Spinal cord stimulation relieves pain by modifying nerve activity. The system consists of thin leads placed near nerves on your spinal cord and a small pulse generator that serves as a power source.

The generator delivers controlled electrical impulses through the leads to the nerves along your spinal cord. These impulses “stimulate” the nerves, interrupting pain messages before they reach your brain and significantly reducing pain perception

Modern systems offer different stimulation patterns. Traditional stimulation creates a pleasant tingling sensation, called paresthesia, that replaces pain. Newer technologies, like high-frequency and burst stimulation, provide relief without paresthesia. Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation targets specific nerve clusters at the sites where the nerves branch off from the spine, providing relief to the extremities. Your pain management specialist will help determine which type of stimulation therapy best suits your needs.

Conditions that respond to spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation has proven effective for chronic pain conditions involving nerve damage or dysfunction. Understanding which conditions respond best helps you determine if you might be a good candidate.

Failed back surgery syndrome

Many people continue experiencing persistent back pain even after technically successful spinal surgery. The pain may be the result of inflammation caused by the body’s response to the surgery, or nerves regrowing abnormally after the procedure. This condition, called failed back surgery syndrome, occurs in a significant percentage of patients who undergo spinal procedures.

Spinal cord stimulation has shown excellent results for managing this challenging condition when the underlying surgical issue cannot be corrected.

Complex regional pain syndrome

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) causes severe, often burning pain, typically affecting an arm or leg following an injury. This condition involves nervous system dysfunction that makes pain signals misfire, creating pain that seems disproportionate to the original injury.

The unique treatment capabilities of spinal cord stimulation can offer long-term results when other therapies fail to adequately relieve pain caused by CRPS.

Peripheral neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy results from damage to nerves outside your brain and spinal cord, often causing pain, numbness, and weakness in your hands and feet. Common causes include diabetes, chemotherapy, and other medical conditions.

When medications don’t provide adequate relief, spinal cord stimulation offers an alternative approach that addresses the pain at the spinal cord level before it reaches your brain.

Other conditions

Additional conditions that may benefit from spinal cord stimulation include arachnoiditis, a painful inflammatory condition affecting the protective covering around your spinal cord, and phantom limb pain, a condition in which nerve endings continue to fire after the loss of a limb.

Your pain management specialist can evaluate whether your specific condition might respond to this therapy.

Determining if you’re a candidate for spinal cord stimulation

Not everyone with chronic pain is an appropriate candidate for spinal cord stimulation. Your healthcare team will carefully evaluate several factors to determine if this therapy is right for you.

Essential criteria

Ideal candidates have experienced chronic pain for at least six months, allowing time for natural healing and ensuring the pain is truly chronic rather than acute. You should have tried and not found sufficient relief from conservative treatments, including medications, physical therapy, nerve blocks, or other interventions. This demonstrates that less invasive options haven’t adequately addressed your pain.

A psychological evaluation is an important part of the selection process. This assessment isn’t questioning whether your pain is real but rather ensures you’re emotionally prepared for the therapy and identifies any factors that might affect your success.

Chronic pain often coexists with depression and anxiety, which is completely understandable. Addressing these conditions before or during spinal cord stimulation treatment improves your overall outcomes.

The trial period: Testing before commitment

One of the most reassuring aspects of spinal cord stimulation is the opportunity to try it before making a permanent decision. The trial period typically lasts five to seven days and allows you to experience the therapy in your everyday life.

During the trial, temporary leads are placed near your spinal cord via a minimally invasive procedure performed with local anesthesia and sedation. These leads connect to an external pulse generator that you wear on your belt or waistband. This temporary setup lets you test different stimulation programs and evaluate how well the therapy manages your pain during normal daily activities.

You’ll keep a detailed pain diary throughout the trial, recording your pain levels, medication use, sleep quality, and ability to perform various activities. This information helps your pain management team assess whether spinal cord stimulation provides meaningful benefit for you. The trial is considered successful if you achieve at least 50% pain reduction, though most patients experience even greater relief.

The trial period is not just about pain reduction but also about functional improvement. Can you do activities that pain previously prevented? Are you sleeping better? Do you need less pain medication? These quality-of-life improvements often matter as much as the amount of pain reduction.

Permanent implantation process

If your trial demonstrates significant benefit, you can proceed with confidence to permanent implantation. This outpatient surgical procedure typically takes around one hour and is performed under general anesthesia or conscious sedation, depending on your preferences and medical needs.

Your surgeon places the leads in the same position that worked well during your trial, ensuring consistency with the relief you experienced. The pulse generator is implanted under your skin, usually in your lower abdomen or upper buttock area, where it remains discreet and won’t interfere with clothing or movement.

Most patients go home the same day with instructions for caring for the incision sites and gradually resuming activities. Some soreness at the implant site is normal and typically resolves within a few days to weeks. Most people return to light activities within a few days and normal activities within two to four weeks, though your surgeon will provide specific guidance based on your individual situation.

Life-changing benefits you can experience

The primary goal of spinal cord stimulation is meaningful pain reduction that improves your quality of life. Many patients experience over 80% reduction in their pain levels. While complete pain elimination is rare, this degree of improvement can be truly transformative.

Beyond pain reduction itself, many patients discover they can decrease or eliminate strong pain medications. Better sleep becomes possible when pain no longer keeps you awake at night. Your mood often improves as the burden of constant pain lifts. You may find yourself able to participate in family activities, return to hobbies you’d abandoned, and generally engage more fully with life.

Living well with your device

Successfully living with a spinal cord stimulator involves managing your device and making lifestyle adjustments that maximize benefits.

Most systems require regular charging using a wireless charging unit placed over the implant site. You’ll learn to adjust stimulation settings, giving you control over your pain management. Initially, avoid activities like heavy lifting or high-impact exercise. As you heal, you’ll gradually expand activities with guidance from your healthcare team.

Regular follow-up appointments allow your pain management specialist to fine-tune settings and address concerns. Communicating openly about what’s working helps optimize your results.

Find compassionate nerve pain relief with spinal cord stimulation in the Twin Cities

At Twin Cities Pain Clinic, we understand the toll chronic nerve pain takes on your life. Our experienced pain management specialists provide a thorough evaluation to determine if spinal cord stimulation is right for you. We guide you through every step with compassion and expertise, ensuring you receive the support needed to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Call Twin Cities Pain Clinic today at 952-841-2345 or schedule your consultation online and discover whether spinal cord stimulation could help you find relief from chronic nerve pain.

The contents of this article are intended for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with a physician or other qualified healthcare provider before engaging in any action or decision-making based on the content of this article. Never disregard or delay seeking professional medical advice or treatment because of the content of this article or any other content on the Twin Cities Pain Clinic website. Reliance on any information conveyed on the Twin Cities Pain Clinic website without direct consultation with a healthcare professional is solely at your own risk.

REFERENCES

1. “Works CitedSoares, Maria, et al. “The Effectiveness of Spinal Cord Stimulation Combined with Physiotherapy in the Management of Chronic Pain in Adults: A Systematic Review.” Frontiers in Pain Research, vol. 6, 22 July 2025, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpain.2025.1620289.
2. “Fishman, Michael, et al. “Twelve‐Month Results from Multicenter, Open‐Label, Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Comparing Differential Target Multiplexed Spinal Cord Stimulation and Traditional Spinal Cord Stimulation in Subjects with Chronic Intractable Back Pain and Leg Pain.” Pain Practice, 27 Aug. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1111/papr.13066.
3. Gee, Lucy, et al. “Spinal Cord Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Pain Reduces Opioid Use and Results in Superior Clinical Outcomes When Used without Opioids.” Neurosurgery, vol. 84, no. 1, 12 Mar. 2018, pp. 217–226, https://doi.org/10.1093/neuros/nyy065.
4. “Kumar, Krishna, et al. “Spinal Cord Stimulation versus Conventional Medical Management for Neuropathic Pain: A Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial in Patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.” Pain, vol. 132, no. 1, Nov. 2007, pp. 179–188, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2007.07.028.