Background: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is used to treat chronic pain and requires an awake patient for optimized lead positioning to locate paresthesias. Epidural anesthesia may be a suitable anesthetic but has not been evaluated.
Methods: We performed an open-label, prospective, observational, single-center study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of laminectomy lead placement under epidural anesthesia for the treatment of neuropathic chronic pain.
Results: The results in our study demonstrate that epidural anesthesia is a suitable technique for SCS lead implant.
Conclusions: This is the first study using epidural anesthesia for SCS lead implants by laminectomy. The technique seems to be safe and effective.