{"href":"Single Video Player","role":"media-player-id","content-type":"play-in-place","position":"float","orientation":"portrait","label":"Awake Implantation of Thoracic Spinal Cord Stimulator Paddle Electrode and Generator: 2-Dimensional Operative Video","caption":"","object-id":[{"pub-id-type":"doi","id":""},{"pub-id-type":"other","content-type":"media-stream-id","id":"1_xwfdn5za"},{"pub-id-type":"other","content-type":"media-source","id":"Kaltura"}]}
Disclosures
The authors have no personal, financial, or institutional interest in any of the drugs, materials, or devices described in this article.
COMMENTS
One can debate whether or not trials for spinal cord stimulation should be performed using paddle leads. There is increased risk and cost associated with this compared to trials performed with percutaneous leads. In addition, if the trial is a failure the patient has to be brought back to the operating room for extraction of the paddle as opposed to a simple removal of percutaneous leads in an outpatient clinic.
That being said, the authors do a nice job in the video showing the patient set-up, relevant anatomy, and technical steps required to perform this safely. Paddle lead anchoring methods and management of the extension leads and connectors are nicely illustrated and can be helpful for other surgeons wishing to perform this procedure.
Naresh P. Patel
Phoenix, Arizona
Spinal cord stimulator electrode and generator implantation is far from standardized, and continues to have device-related complications. The literature is replete with surgical technique iterations, but this video clearly demonstrates all the steps and some tricks to implanting a neuromodulatory device in an awake patient. These types of videos coupled with reported complication rates will, in the future, improve the granularity with which we judge surgical outcomes.
Jeffrey Steven Raskin
Indianapolis, Indiana
