Dr. Robert M. Levy

Dr. Robert M. Levy, Professor of Neurosurgery and Physiology at Northwestern Medical School in Chicago told United Press International, This is a very, very potent study..

Even though there have been many of us worldwide who, for going on 30 years, have been effectively using spinal cord stimulation as a way of treating reflex sympathetic dystrophy, said Levy, this is the first time that there has been a scientifically valid, properly designed trial that provides proof thereof..

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I think if you look at people who do a lot of these implants, the complication rate is at the most 10 percent, certainly not the 25 percent they identify said Levy.The real issue is that this is a fabulous technology when doctors apply very stringent and careful criteria for its use..

If you really do ensure that patients have failed conventional therapies, if you really do evaluate patients and make sure they are good candidates for the implantation, and if you really do characterize their chronic pain to know that it be one that spinal cord stimulation tends to work for, then the success rate of the procedure is profound, says Levy.

The study was funded by a grant from the Dutch Health Insurance Council in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.