Implantable Drug Therapy

What is implantable drug therapy?

Implantable drug therapy is a treatment option for patients with chronic pain conditions that are having a severe impact on their life, when other treatments aren’t alleviating their pain.

Implantable drug therapy involves inserting a small pump under the skin that delivers drugs to the spine via a catheter. The pump targets the intrathecal space, which is the area surrounding your spinal cord in which there’s a concentration of nerves that are responsible for sending pain signals to your brain.

Implantable drug therapy using an intrathecal pump delivers medication directly to the nerves that are sending pain signals to the brain, so patients need a far lower dose of drugs to achieve relief from their pain. The pumps also provide a continuous dose of medication that eliminates the need for patients to take oral painkillers, and side effects are fewer compared to oral medications.

Would I be a suitable candidate for implantable drug therapy?

People with intractable pain that isn’t responding to other forms of treatment make suitable candidates, particularly people with:

• Cancer
• Causalgia (chronic regional pain syndrome or CRPS type 2)
• Arachnoiditis
• Chronic pancreatitis
• Stroke
• Brain injury
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Cerebral palsy

Candidates for implantable drug therapy need to be free of any medical conditions that might cause difficulties with implantation and have no allergies to the medication used in the pump. Anyone considering implantable drug therapy undergoes a trial period where they experience what it’s like to live with the pump before their surgeon undertakes any surgical insertion.

How is the intrathecal pump inserted?

Once you’ve been through the trial phase, if you’re achieving significant benefit from the implantable drug system, you can undergo an outpatient procedure to implant the intrathecal pump permanently.

During the procedure, your surgeon places the pump under your skin and the catheter leading from the pump into the intrathecal space to deliver your medication. The surgery is minimally invasive, and recovery time is short.

Your surgeon gives you a remote control device to enable you to adjust the dose of medication within pre-set parameters, allowing you to control any breakthrough pain that you may experience.

Implantable drug therapy is just one of the innovative options available for providing relief from chronic pain, so to discuss your suitability for an intrathecal pump, call Chicagoland Pain Management today, or book an appointment online.