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pISSN 2005-9159
eISSN 2093-0569
eISSN 2093-0569
Korean J Pain 2020; 33(2): 99-107
Published online April 1, 2020 https://doi.org/10.3344/kjp.2020.33.2.99
Copyright © The Korean Pain Society.
Emil Isagulyan1 
, Konstantin Slavin2 , Nikolay Konovalov3 , Eugeny Dorochov1 , Alexey Tomsky1 , Andrey Dekopov1 , Elizaveta Makashova4 , David Isagulyan5 , Pavel Genov6
1Department of Functional Neurosurgery, Federal State Autonomous Institution «N.N. Burdenko National Scientific and Practical Center for Neurosurgery of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation», Moscow, Russia
2Department of Neurosurgery, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
3Department of Spinal Surgery, Federal State Autonomous Institution «N.N. Burdenko National Scientific and Practical Center for Neurosurgery of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation», Moscow, Russia
4Departament of Neurology, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
5Departament of Clinical Science, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
6Pain Management Clinic, Moscow City Clinical Hospital #52, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence to:Pavel Genov
Pain Management Clinic, Moscow City Clinical Hospital #52, 3 Pekhotnaya Ulitsa, 123182 Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7-4991963936
Fax: +7-4991962114
E-mail: genov78@yandex.ru
Received: December 31, 2019; Revised: February 3, 2020; Accepted: February 3, 2020
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Chronic severe pain results in a detrimental effect on the patient’s quality of life. Such patients have to take a large number of medications, including opioids, often without satisfactory effect, sometimes leading to medication abuse and the pain worsening. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is one of the most effective technologies that, unlike other interventional pain treatment methods, achieves long-term results in patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain. The first described mode of SCS was a conventional tonic stimulation, but now the novel modalities (high-frequency and burst), techniques (dorsal root ganglia stimulations), and technical development (wireless and implantable pulse generator-free systems) of SCS are becoming more popular. The improvement of SCS systems, their miniaturization, and the appearance of new mechanisms for anchoring electrodes results in a significant reduction in the rate of complications and revision surgeries, and the appearance of new waves of stimulation allows not only to avoid the phenomenon of addiction, but also to improve the long-term results of chronic SCS. The purpose of this review is to describe the current condition of SCS and up-to-date technical advances.
Keywords: Chronic Pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndromes, Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, Low Back Pain, Neck Pain, Neuralgia, Pain, Pain Management, Spinal Cord Stimulation.
