Spinal cord stimulation as alternative treatment for chronic post-herniorrhaphy pain.

Objective: Our goal was to determine the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation for patients with intractable post-herniorrhaphy pain which conventional treatment failed to ameliorate.

Procedure: The patients underwent an uneventful spinal cord stimulator (SCS) trial with percutaneous placement of two eight-electrode epidural leads (Medtronic Inc, Minneapolis, MN, USA) to level T7-T8-T9.

Results: Upon experiencing excellent pain relief over the next two days during the trial, the patients were implanted with permanent leads and rechargeable or non-rechargeable generators two to four weeks later and reported sustained pain relief during following 12 months after implantation.