CMH Neurosurgeon Offers Cutting-Edge Spinal Implant for Chronic Pain

Nevro HF10 Spinal Implant, Now Available at CMH in Ventura, Offers New Hope to Chronic Pain Sufferers and Helps Reduce Opioid Dependency

Millions of Americans experience chronic pain. If your body keeps hurting for months or years, it will negatively impact your quality of life every day and also affect your mental health.

Chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans and is most commonly experienced in the back or legs.

Chronic pain is a key reason so many people take medications and why addiction to painkillers and opioids is a major problem nationwide. Chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans and is the primary cause of disability among adults in the United States. Chronic pain is most commonly experienced in the back or legs. Treatments include over-the-counter or prescription medications, injections and invasive spinal surgery, but many patients say these options don’t bring adequate long-term relief.

Opioids are commonly used to manage chronic pain but can lead to abuse and addiction. Opioid overdoses have become the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, leaving doctors and patients to seek alternatives.

Spinal cord stimulation implants as a treatment option have improved significantly in recent years. The newest and most successful is the Nevro HF10, a spinal cord stimulation treatment that gives substantial relief for patients suffering from chronic back and leg pain without risking drug addiction.

This advanced treatment is being adopted around the globe and is now available at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura with Dr. Michael Dorsi, a pioneering neurosurgeon who is among the first neurosurgeons to implant the HF10. FDA approval of HF10 came with a label of “superiority” over traditional spinal cord stimulation therapy.

“HF10 offers new hope for people suffering with chronic pain,” Dr. Dorsi said.

Chronic pain can result from an accident, injury, degenerative condition, prior surgery or just getting older. “Spinal implants to manage chronic pain are usually recommended by a neurosurgeon or pain management specialist,” Dr. Dorsi continued. Talk to your doctor to see if HF10 will help you manage pain and live your best life.

Candidates for the HF10 Implant

According to Dr. Dorsi, common candidates for the new implant are those with chronic pain who previously had spinal surgery and didn’t get relief, people with back or leg pain that lacks a surgical fix, or people who can’t have back surgery due to other health conditions. “HF10 also is an option for patients who had spinal stimulators in the past with older technology that produced uncomfortable tingling sensations or just didn’t provide long-term relief,” he said.

HF10 has been shown to treat back, leg, neck and arm pain as well as peripheral neuropathy.

How HF10 Works

Unlike traditional spinal cord stimulation devices which deliver low-frequency electrical pulses to mask chronic pain (and which patients often say deliver annoying tingling or vibrating sensations), HF10 delivers pain relief by altering how pain is processed in the spinal cord without producing these sensations. It’s a major improvement for patients.

Unlike traditional spinal cord stimulation devices which deliver low-frequency electrical pulses to mask chronic pain, HF10 delivers pain relief by altering how pain is processed in the spinal cord without producing these sensations.

HF10 is a small, implantable medical device that sends mild electrical pulses to the spinal cord to alter pain signals traveling to the brain, thus reducing pain. HF10 does not require drugs or major surgery, just a minimally invasive procedure in which a lead is placed on the spinal cord connected to a rechargeable 10-year battery. An electric current from the device alters pain pathways and changes the way patients perceive pain.

The reason HF10 is so effective is that it uses very mild imperceptible pulses at a high frequency to quiet and calm the pain-causing nerves. This differs from the older stimulators that work by creating tingling in the patient’s pain area as a distraction. With HF10 there is no tingling, only pain relief.

6 Key Benefits of the HF10 Implant

• You can try HF10 in a temporary trial, typically for 5 – 7 days, to see if it is right for you.
• HF10 can be left on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The battery lasts about 10 years and then is easily replaced.
• HF10 isn’t addictive, doesn’t cloud thoughts, and doesn’t cause drowsiness or constipation like pain medications.
• Patients have no driving or sleep restrictions.
• HF10 is covered by Medicare and most private insurers.
• HF10 significantly reduces the need for opioids. In a clinical study, HF10 patients showed an average reduction in opioid medication use of nearly 70 percent.

About Dr. Michael Dorsi

Dr. Dorsi, a resident of Newbury Park, received his medical degree and residency training from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and he completed minimally invasive spine fellowship training at UCLA. In medical school, Dr. Dorsi conducted neuropathic pain and stem cell research and was recognized with several national awards. Dr. Dorsi specializes in minimally invasive surgery to treat conditions of the spine, brain and peripheral nerves. He has been in practice in Ventura County for seven years and is accepting new patients in his offices in Ventura and Thousand Oaks.