Is Spinal Cord Stimulation Worth It?

For patients dealing with chronic neuropathic pain, spinal cord stimulation can be a worthy solution once medications and other therapies fail. This treatment has been on the upswing in the United States, helping many patients live pain-free.

If you’re tired of dealing with the pain, you probably considered getting a spinal cord stimulator yourself. However, you also might have many questions floating around your head, such as ‘’is it worth the investment?’’ or simply wondering about the spinal cord stimulator battery cost. 

We’ll try to demystify everything and help you decide whether a spinal cord stimulation is a good fit for you and your condition.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

What is Spinal Cord Stimulation?

This treatment involves implanting a device known as a stimulator into the patient’s body, which then sends electrical signals to the spinal cord. These electrical signals interrupt the pain signals and stop them from traveling to the brain. 

A stimulator doesn’t eliminate pain, it simply masks it by overriding the pain messages.

The small device is usually implanted underneath the skin in the neck, or more commonly the lower back. Since it requires surgery, spinal cord stimulation is somewhat of a last-ditch effort if other, more traditional forms of treatment don’t help with the pain. 

Certain conditions respond well to this treatment, such as:

1. Arachnoiditis - inflammation of the outer layer of the spinal cord
2. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome - involves intense pain that can spread to an entire limb. This condition may be the result of nerve damage from an injury or a defect in the central nervous system.
3. Failed back surgery syndrome - sometimes surgery can fail in relieving back or neck pain. In the worst-case scenario, the failed surgery might make the pain even worse. 

Who is a Good Candidate For This Treatment

If you have medical insurance, your provider most likely covers this treatment. That is if your physician confirms that you’re a good candidate for a spinal cord stimulator. So how can you know if you’re an appropriate fit?

We already mentioned the conditions proven to respond well to these devices. If you’re in agony from experiencing nerve pain, and have tried other methods to no avail, your physician will most likely agree that you’re a good candidate. 

In more detail, you have to fit these criteria:

1. You’re experiencing pain in your limbs, back, or trunk
2. Your pain has lasted more than three months
3. Your pain persists even after trying surgery, injections, and medications

Another upside to this treatment is that it’s a favorable option for people who are not surgical candidates as it’s a procedure that’s minimally invasive. 

Spinal cord Stimulator Trial

Before moving forward with an implant, you might need to try a temporary system to check if it provides the appropriate amount of pain relief. 

How it works is very simple: the leads of the device will get inserted into your spinal column and positioned near the source of the pain. A pulse generator will be temporarily attached to the skin. On average, this trial can last up to seven days and if you experience as little as 50% pain reduction, you can have a spinal cord stimulator implanted. 

The point of the trial is not only to check how effective it is for your condition but to confirm to insurance companies that this treatment is the right option for you. If you pass the trial successfully, your plan will cover the cost of the treatment. 

The Factors That Affect The Price

The cost of spinal cord stimulation depends on many different factors and varies from person to person as with any other medical procedure. 

For instance, the price depends on whether the physician treating you is a part of your insurance provider’s network - aka in-network. If they are in-network potential costs will be significantly lower. 

The cost will also depend on your insurance plan. Most of the plans have a limit on yearly out-of-pocket expenses. Depending on the insurance plan, these expenses can include copayments or deductibles. 

The amount you will pay depends on the co-insurance, co-pay, and deductible plan that you chose including the amount you already paid over 12 months.

To illustrate, if you’ve already been to a doctor a few times last year and you have a high deductible plan, you’ll pay less for the spinal cord stimulation treatment. 

The last factor that plays a role in the expenses is whether the procedure is an inpatient or outpatient one. However, since implanting a spinal cord stimulator is non-invasive, it will most likely be an outpatient procedure, which will significantly lower the potential costs.

Types of Batteries and Average Prices

As we previously described, if this treatment is medically necessary, the insurance will cover the upfront costs, there might be additional costs if complications arise, including yearly maintenance costs. Those costs include spinal cord stimulator battery replacement cost. 

The technology used in this treatment has become a lot more advanced and the power consumption has followed suit. Since the spinal cord stimulator battery replacement cost would be through the roof as it would require more frequent surgeries, newer systems rely more on rechargeable batteries.

On average, the cost of implanting a spinal cord stimulator is between $30k and $60k, with rechargeable devices being slightly more expensive. 

However, with a rechargeable device, you might save money in the long run as these batteries have a longer lifespan. That means fewer additional surgeries and lower spinal cord stimulator battery replacement costs. 

With that said, you shouldn’t be concerned about spinal cord stimulator battery replacement costs, or the system you choose. Your primary goal should be finding the device with the most potential for pain relief and the one that provides the least amount of hassle.

While the costs you save with a rechargeable device might be negligible, we believe that the less frequent doctor visits and surgeries are the more important factor than the spinal cord stimulator battery replacement cost.

Saying Goodbye To Pain

Spinal cord stimulation might help you finally experience a higher quality of life with a significantly lower amount of pain. Especially if you already tried everything, and you’re starting to lose hope that your condition will ever improve.

With rechargeable systems, you also won’t have to go through constant procedures, and you won’t have to worry about spinal cord stimulator battery replacement costs all the time. 



However, there are a couple of negative sides you should consider. If you are suffering from diabetes, you have a higher probability of developing an infection, there is a risk of lead migration (which can decrease the pain relief), and there is also a chance that you’ll simply acquire tolerance to the implant. 

Still, if your insurance covers this treatment, it’s worth trying because a pain-free life is worth it.