Data Back Benefits of Abbott Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain

Abbott today announced positive results from a new multicenter study of the company’s BurstDR^™ stimulation which showed that lower-energy, intermittent doses of BurstDR stimulation – known as ‘microdosing’ – can provide pain relief that is just as effective as standard doses of BurstDR stimulation in people with chronic intractable pain.

The BurstDR micrOdosing stimuLation in De-novo patients (BOLD) study, presented at the 22nd Annual North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) meeting, shows a potential way to prolong the battery life of a patient’s spinal cord stimulation (SCS) device while offering optimal pain relief. The research may also provide a path toward ensuring lower-maintenance recharge-free SCS devices offer similar battery longevity as rechargeable SCS systems, which carry a higher burden for patients.

In a separate study called BURST(able), also presented at NANS 2019, data showed that patients who no longer received effective pain relief from their SCS therapy experienced restored pain control and reduced opioid dependency when they switched to an Abbott device offering the BurstDR waveform. Loss of pain relief is the most common cause for patients seeking an explant of their SCS system, and combatting this loss of efficacy addresses one of the key problems seen in long-term SCS therapy.

‘BurstDR stimulation has been used clinically now for many years and these latest data indicate that we’ve just scratched the surface of what’s possible,’ said Allen W. Burton, M.D., medical director of Abbott’s Chronic Pain Therapies. ‘Our goal is to continue studying BurstDR stimulation to maximize its potential, even at extremely low doses, and allow people with chronic pain to live their best lives without the burden of recharging their devices and the fear of losing efficacy over time.’

Approximately 1.5 billion people around the world are affected by chronic pain. SCS delivers a low-voltage electrical current through the spine to block the sensation of pain and offers an important alternative to opioid therapy. While traditional SCS systems produce therapeutic waveforms that are delivered at a consistent frequency and charge, Abbott’s unique BurstDR stimulation works differently from other stimulation devices, utilizing proprietary technology to produce intermittent pulses – or bursts – designed to mimic the body’s natural nerve impulse patterns. Abbott is the only company approved to offer BurstDR stimulation to patients in the U.S. and international markets.

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