Rochester Regional Health has begun fitting patients with a new device designed to manage chronic pain.
The device, called a StimRouter, is part of a larger family of medical technology developed over the past 50 years that directly impedes the nerves sending pain signals to the brain.
“Those damaged structures keep on sending signals continuously on a 24/7 basis,” said Dr. Hemant Kalia, a pain and cancer specialist at Rochester Regional who was the first at that health system to implant a StimRouter in a patient.
When those signals are chronic, lasting more than six months, “in addition to struggling with pain, it actually starts affecting patients’ personalities as well,” Kalia said.
Neuromodulation therapies like the StimRouter can reduce reliance on addictive drugs like opioids for patients with chronic pain, Kalia said.
The therapies, with their "tiny little electrodes," mitigate pain much the same way that noise-canceling headphones block out background sounds, said Kalia — though they’re not for everyone. “This is a very specific device for very specific indications,” he said.
The StimRouter works only on peripheral nerves. It’s not for back pain or migraines, for example. And patients who have metallic implants arenot eligible for the device.
It’s a bit of a “small pool” of potential patients, Kalia said, but it’s part of a much larger trend toward treating pain without drugs or invasive surgeries.
“We are not only able to manage their chronic pain,” Kalia said of the patients who have received the treatment so far, “but also improve their function and quality of life, and, by not relying on opioids, make a meaningful improvement in the society and the community, as well.”
