GREENSBORO, N.C. — Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, and it can take a very serious toll on your quality of life. One common symptom is diabetic neuropathy, a condition affecting about half of all patients.
If left untreated it can lead to pain, foot ulcers, and even lower limb amputation. Pain relief could now be a reality for many diabetic patients. The FDA recently approved the use of a spinal cord stimulation device to treat chronic nerve damage that is associated with diabetes.
Dr. Kent Cochran is a nerve pain physician with Novant health. While spinal cord stimulation is not new, Dr. Cochran said experts have found it can be a good option for people who have peripheral nerve pain due to diabetes.
"The device is called a spinal cord stimulator and there are numerous companies that provide the technology for this device," Cochran said. "It's a device that's placed on the back of the spine in the epidural space. What this device does is that it sits in that space, it watches transmitters, specifically pain fibers, and travel up the spinal cord and synapse or act on the brain to where people perceive or note, or experience pain."
Dr. Cochran said this device became a game changer for patients who feel they have "tried everything" to relieve pain.
"It affects their sleep, it affects their movement, it affects their activity," Dr. Cochran said. So, this device can overcome that by targeting those chronic nerve fibers that travel up the spinal cord, and it can basically scramble that signal to where the brain isn't perceiving all that pain."
Dr. Cochran said this spinal cord stimulator can be covered by insurance and is for someone who has a history of diabetes with good glucose control.