Techniques to mitigate lead migration for percutaneous trials of cervical spinal cord stimulation

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Introduction: Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a clinical neuromodulation technique that is commonly used to treat neuropathic pain, with patients typically undergoing a one-week percutaneous trial phase before permanent implantation. Traditional SCS involves stimulation of the thoracic spinal cord, but there has been substantial recent interest in cervical SCS to treat upper extremity pain, restore sensation from the missing hand after amputation, or restore motor function to paretic limbs in people with stroke and spinal cord injury. Because of the additional mobility of the neck, as compared to the trunk, lead migration can be a major challenge for cervical SCS, especially during the percutaneous trial phase. The objective of this study was to optimize the implantation procedure of cervical SCS leads to minimize lead migration and increase lead stability during SCS trials. Methods: In this study, four subjects underwent percutaneous placement of three SCS leads targeting the cervical spinal segments as part of a clinical trial aiming to restore sensation for people with upper-limb amputation. The leads were maintained for up to 29 days and weekly x-ray imaging was used to measure rostrocaudal and mediolateral lead migration based on bony landmarks. Results and discussion: Lead migration was primarily confined to the rostrocaudal axis with the most migration occurring during the first week. Iterative improvements to the implantation procedure were implemented to increase lead stability across subjects. There was a decrease in lead migration for patients who had more rostral placement of the SCS leads. The average migration from the day of lead implant to lead removal was 29.7 mm for Subject 1 (lead placement ranging from T3-T4 to T1-T2), 41.9 mm for Subject 2 (T2-T3 to C7-T1), 1.9 mm for Subject 3 (T1-T2 to C7-T1), and 16.6 mm for Subject 4 (T1-T2 to C7-T1). We found that initial placement of spinal cord stimulator leads in the cervical epidural space as rostral as possible was critical to minimizing subsequent rostrocaudal lead migration.

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