New treatment effective for chronic pain

Three Australian specialists have been involved in trialling a new treatment that effectively provides relief for patients with difficult-to-treat chronic neuropathic pain.

The findings were presented this week in Canberra at the Australian Pain Society 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting by Belgium’s Dr Jean Pierre Van Buyten, Chairman of the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre AZ Nikolaas, Sint-Niklaas.

As part of this international collaboration, Dr Marc Russo from Newcastle, Dr John Salmon from Perth and Dr Paul Verrills in Melbourne conducted research on the device at their pain clinics over the past 12 months.

The treatment, a 10 kHz high-frequency spinal cord stimulation system called Senza, provides relief for three out of four patients with difficult-to-treat neuropathic pain.

One in five Australians suffer from chronic pain. Each year, chronic pain costs an estimated AU$10,847 on the individual, $34 billion to the economy, and an estimated $11.7 billion in lost productivity (36.5 million workdays) each year.

The device was developed by medical device company Nevro Corporation, based in California.