Spinal stimulator stops diabetic nerve pain

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Thirty-seven million Americans have diabetes – a condition where your body doesn’t make insulin, or doesn’t use it well.

Fifty to 70% of people with diabetes also struggle with a serious condition called diabetic neuropathy, which is nerve damage that causes numbness and pain in the legs and feet. Now, a new treatment uses stimulation to treat it.

Alice Ortiz calls herself a “city girl turned country.” But living on a 10-acre farm and keeping up with cows, goats, and chickens has been tough for the past six years. Ortiz has diabetic neuropathy.

Ortiz described her symptoms, “It started with tingling and a little bit of burning and numbness.”

The pain got worse, making it difficult to be on her feet. “Diabetic neuropathy took over my life. I mean, living with pain 24/7 is not, it’s not easy,” Ortiz expressed.

Ortiz was treated with medication. She tried Gabapentin, Cymbalta, and Lyrica, but nothing worked.

“Unfortunately, until recently, there really was no next step,” Mercy Medical Center Pain Management Specialist William Raoofi, MD, said.

Now, a treatment that is newly approved for diabetic neuropathy is bringing relief.

“I describe it as like, a cardiac pacemaker, but for the nervous system,” said Dr. Raoofi.

It’s called the Nevro HFX, a spinal cord stimulator that transmits mild electrical pulses to the spinal cord. The device is connected to a pulse generator that sends the electric current to the spine.

“It was like a light switch. The pain totally went away,” Ortiz said.

Now, she is able to get back to her life.

A trial of the device shows 80% of patients have pain relief from the stimulation. Once the spinal cord stimulator is implanted in the lower back, patients recharge the battery wirelessly through the skin by wearing a belt with a charger that refreshes the stimulator battery.

Spinal cord stimulation has been approved for other conditions like back pain but has only been approved for a year for diabetic neuropathy.