Visions on the future of medical devices in spinal cord stimulation: What medical device is needed?

Abstract

Recently burst stimulation and 10 kHz stimulation have been developed as novel stimulation designs. Both appear to be superior to classical tonic stimulation in the amount of responders and the amount of pain suppression and have as an extra advantage that they are paresthesia-free. This evolution is very important as it shifts the focus of research from better targeting by developing new lead configurations to better communication with the nervous system. It can be envisioned that this is only the start of a new trend in spinal cord, brain, and peripheral nerve stimulation and that more new stimulation designs will be developed in the near future such as pseudorandom burst stimulation, pleasure stimulation, noise stimulation and reconditioning stimulation. This evolution mandates a new approach in the development of internal pulse generators, and the most obvious approach is to develop an upgradable stimulator, on which new stimulation designs can be downloaded, analogous to the apps people download on their smartphones. This will create a shift from hardware driven products to software driven stimulators.