Thanks to the advent of medicinal advancements throughout the past few centuries, humanity no longer is phases by smallpox, measles, influenza, and other ailments that are easily cured today. Unfortunately for its suffers, chronic pain in America is a widespread problem, with many of the 33.6-plus million sufferers being treated with high doses of potentially harmful opioid medications. There are alternative treatments, although many United States citizens choose not to take advantage of them.
What are intrathecal pain pumps?
Intrathecal pain pumps are effective in dealing with chronic pain, most often used by pain-afflicted patients dependent on opioid painkillers. Innovative intrathecal pain pumps are surgically embedded under patients' abdominal layers of skin. These often-effective devices are crafted of metal with a plastic catheter running directly to the spinal cord. Intrathecal -- or, medication delivered to the arachnoid membrane of spinal cords -- devices are traditionally end-of-line approaches to pain management, looked to after all available treatments have been effectively exhausted.
What do these devices treat?
These wonder-devices help mitigate pain, dropping physiological discomfort to manageable levels. Although intrathecal pain pumps do not cure chronic pain by any means, they certainly help their hosts lead more enjoyable lives.
What do they help?
Intrathecal pain pumps provide extra boosts of pain management to people with failed spinal surgeries, as well as inflammatory diseases and degenerative bone problems. Chronic pain patients are also aided in taking significantly lower amounts of pain medication as the spinal cord better delivers opioids throughout the body. Compared to oral morphine consumption, these modern pain pumps help patients take up to three hundred times less the amount of orally consumed morphine in chronic pain sufferers.
What pain does intrathecal pain pumps help?
Pain from back surgeries that didn't turn out well are ideal candidates for these devices. Those suffering from cancer-related, pancreatic, and nerve injuries have pain levels dropped to manageable levels.
What results can users expect to receive?
Intrathecal pain pumps generally help in three areas. People who live with spastic muscles may experience fewer spasms and being less rigid. Those suffering from chronic pain will have their pain levels decreased to easily-managed baselines, resulting in easier performance of daily activities. Finally, current doses of opioids are significantly reduced, as much as three hundred times as compared to oral opioid therapy.