St. Jude Medical received EU regulatory approval and is now launching its Prodigy Chronic Pain System with Burst Technology in Europe. The neurostimulator was designed to address challenging patients for whom a traditional spinal cord stimulator (SCS) may not be sufficiently effective, and to prevent paresthesia, a tingling senation, that’s common in SCS users.
Standard neurostimulators for pain management provide a constant rhythm of pulses that mask the electric signals going up the spine. The brain seems to overcome this type of noise and for many patients the pain remains. Moreover, continuous even signals from the stimulator seem to develop a tingling sensation in many patients, some of whom find it more unpleasant than the pain itself. The Burst Technology inside the Prodigy implant allows surgeons to program an irregular pattern of pulses, hopefully making the device more efficient at stopping pain while preventing the dreaded paresthesia.
More from St. Jude about the Prodigy:
The Prodigy system features the longest-lasting battery life, even at the highest settings, of any rechargeable SCS device in its class. Additionally, its small size allows for a smaller incision, which gives physicians increased flexibility in selecting the implant location and is intended to make the site less visible and more comfortable for patients.
Burst technology consists of intermittent packets of closely spaced stimuli. An initial 40 Hz burst is followed by five pulses at 500 Hz with each 500 Hz pulse 1 ms in duration with a 1 ms inter pulse interval.
The cumulative charge of the five 1 ms pulses is released in a 5 ms period following the burst sequence.
Product page: Prodigy Chronic Pain System…
Press release: St. Jude Medical Announces European Launch of Prodigy Spinal Cord Stimulation System with Burst Technology…
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