Spinal cord stimulation therapy for chronic back pain
Parkview Neuroscience professionals use various approaches to treat chronic back pain, depending on a patient’s health history:
- Physical therapy
- Medication
- Nerve block injections
- Surgical repair
Certain individuals who experience chronic pain from cancer, spinal cord injury and reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) have found relief through the use of a spinal cord stimulator. Implanted under the skin of the lower abdomen, the device uses low-voltage electrical stimulation to block pain that normally travels along the spinal cord.
The majority of patients who have had a spinal cord stimulator implanted have experienced significant relief. Some individuals have also been able to reduce their use of medications.
The future of stroke treatment — Neurointervention
Parkview Stanley Wissman Stroke Center brought the region’s first neurointerventionalist to the area in 2007 to enable patients with complex cerebrovascular conditions to receive cutting-edge stroke treatment without having to travel to a university hospital hundreds of miles away.
Nils Mueller-Kronast, MD, heads Parkview’s NeuroInterventional Services team. Often, when a patient is still experiencing a stroke, the team can intervene with minimally invasive surgical procedures to remove the blockage in an affected artery and restore blood flow to oxygen-starved parts of the brain. In other cases, special medications may be administered to dissolve a blood clot.
Between November 1, 2007, and October 31, 2008 (the most recent period for which data are available) Parkview’s successful usage rate of intravenous “clot-busting” agents was 2.5 times the national average.
Remote diagnosis and the StrokeCareNow Network
As a healthcare referral center for northeast Indiana, southern Michigan and northwest Ohio, Parkview often treats stroke patients who have been transported from smaller communities. In many cases, if patients had received treatment early during their stroke episodes, disabilities could have been prevented or lessened. Precious time can elapse before a person:
- Recognizes he or she is having a stroke (Many people lie down to nap because they feel weak or sick.)
- Calls 911
- Arrives at the hospital
- Receives an assessment of his or her condition by a physician
- Receives treatment to address the stroke or is transported to a stroke-certified medical facility
In order to shorten the time between a patient’s arrival at a hospital and the administration of measures to stop the stroke, Parkview and Fort Wayne Neurological Center spearheaded the creation of the StrokeCareNow Network, which was born in partnership with another Fort Wayne hospital early in 2009.
StrokeCareNow Network is an alliance of hospitals using telemedicine to deliver faster diagnosis and treatment for patients with stroke or vascular diseases of the brain. Each hospital joining the network receives a telemedicine “robot” developed by Parkview Health Information Technology specialists. Using the unit’s high-quality two-way video and audio system, the attending physician at a community hospital can examine the patient on-site and consult instantaneously with Fort Wayne neurologists.
Because physicians in both locations can view and assess the patient and talk in real time, they can make lifesaving treatment decisions together in minutes. If the patient needs to be transferred to Parkview Stanley Wissman Stroke Center or another facility, the transfer is set in motion immediately, rather than in hours or even days.
As of May 2009, 18 hospitals had become members of the StrokeCareNow Network.