Robert Heros, MD shares the powerful story of a patient who, after a decade of chronic low back pain and failed treatments, finally found relief with ReActiv8. Though the journey took time, 20 months into treatment, she's now 85% improved, traveling for work and enjoying life again. Dr. Heros states,?"Like any other truly rehabilitative treatment, restorative neurostimulation takes time." ReActiv8 is redefining how we treat chronic low back pain! #mainstaymedical?#reactiv8?#multifidusdysfunction #chroniclowbackpain #restorativetherapy?#thinkrestorative #restorativerevolution?#lowbackpain #clbp?#helpingpatients #patientfocus?#puttingpatientsfirst
Like any other truly rehabilitative treatment, restorative neurostimulation takes time. Patients may see improvements in the first 3-6 months, but?the initial gains are often functional more so than reduction in actual?pain. Some patients take longer to respond, but once they do they continue to respond, and respond well. It's not uncommon to see significant gains well into the 2nd year of treatment - in fact, it’s becoming commonplace for my patients.? ? Take T, for example. Only 27 when we met, she'd?been living with low back pain for a decade. She’d been to PT many times, had failed ESIs, facet / SIJ injections and even orthobiologics. ?Her non-radicular LBP was aggravated by simple, small activities like sitting, walking, changing positions, and bending over the sink. Her MRI was unremarkable save a degenerated L5-S1 disc with annular tear, and mild atrophy/fatty infiltration of the multifidus. Most importantly, her exam was significant for reduced multifidus contractions on her left side (+ Multifidus Lift Test) and a positive Prone Instability Test at L4-5 and L5-S1. ? ? She?was?implanted with ReActiv8 and after 6 months was no better. Since we’d spent a lot of time on education and expectations, she knew this wasn’t unexpected or of concern so she simply stayed the course. At 12 months she was happy to report things were getting better, about 50%. Today she's 20 months into treatment and could barely contain herself, reporting at least 85% improvement overall. She’s working as a dental device rep and traveling all over the western US for work, exercising, being active and remembering what it's like to be a healthy 29 yr old. She gushed that “this has completely changed my life. I’m just so happy and thankful, it’s literally given me a new lease... I never thought I’d have my life back like this...”? ? Always great to see happy patients, but I thought I’d share a couple lessons here: 1. With proper patient identification and education, ReActiv8 should, imho, be considered the Gold Standard treatment for chronic refractory axial LBP when there is evidence for multifidus dysfunction and no clear indication for surgery. The days of ablating nerves over and over and over again are... well, over. 2. Restorative/rehabilitative therapies take time... but with proper education and setting reasonable expectations ahead of time, patients are completely ok with this. 3. I now wouldn’t consider explanting ReActiv8 for at least 2 years. Some patients take awhile to even start seeing benefit, and just as the 5-yr data suggests, there is very often continual and significant improvement well into year 2. So be patient. Stay the course. Keep doing the therapy. The?results speak for themselves and are well worth waiting for.? #transparency: I consult with, speak for, and do research with Mainstay Medical. This post is entirely my own.