Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Back

December 3, 2022 updated by: Zack McCormick, University of Utah

Medial Branch Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Refractory Axial Back Pain

To assess changes in pain, physical function, health-related quality of life, and cost-effectiveness in patients with low back pain, without symptoms of radiculopathy, that have not responded to conservative or traditional interventional measures and are having a SPRINT percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator placed as standard of care. Patients will be assessed periodically (by questionnaire) after the placement of the SPRINT, FDA approved 60 day, percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator, targeting the bilateral medial branches at the suspected level of pain generation. Neither the manufacturer nor the FDA are involved or will have access to data from this study.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Terminated

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Low back pain is one of a few conditions which affects all individuals through the lifespan. The etiology of low back pain is multifactorial and in many cases self-limiting, however it also is the leading cause for working age adults to be disabled with more than $87 billion spent on low back pain disorders in 2013. Listhesis of a vertebral body, chronic compression fractures, lumbar disc herniation, and internal disc disruptions are some primary anatomical abnormalities that can cause back pain and do not have great targeted treatments. that may more common in these younger age groups reaching 39-42% with a predicted probability above 60% until age 50y. While the natural history of back pain suggests most individuals will return to a prior level of function in 3-6 months, there is a high rate of recurrent episodes which can cause short-term disability. Continued back pain can lead to decreased activity levels and accelerate degenerative changes in the disc and facet joints as described by Kirkaldy-Willis.

Current guidelines for treatment of axial low back pain include a 6-12-week course of conservative care including medications, therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic and exercise before an interventional paradigm of injections and/or surgical treatment. For those individuals who do not improve with conservative care and have predominately axial pain, options are limited as success rates from epidural steroid injections and surgery are 50% or less. Other treatments include chymopapain injection, intradiscal electrothermal annuloplasty (IDET), nucleoplasty, methylene blue injection. All of which have 50% or less likelihood of reducing pain more than 50%, although much of this data is from uncontrolled or prospective case-control studies only.

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) recently gained FDA approval as an interventional treatment of chronic back pain. PNS involves a minimally invasive percutaneous microelectrode connected to an external impulse generator that adheres to the skin for up to 60 days and then the entire system is removed. It is theorized that the neuromodulatory effects of PNS interrupts the chronic pain cycle and allowing healthy recovery of afferent signaling and limiting and perhaps reversing the maladaptive cortical plasticity involved in chronic pain. There have been two prospective cohort studies published this year, both of which showed meaningful clinical improvement in pain and function scores. One of these studies (Cohen et al.) showed that more than 50% of the patients had greater than 50% improvement in pain at one year after undergoing 2 months of implanted PNS treatment.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
7

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84108
        • University of Utah Orthopaedic Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age greater than or equal to 18 years of age at day of enrollment.
  2. Clinical diagnosis of refractory low back pain for >3 months.
  3. Magnetic resonance imaging pathology consistent with clinical symptoms/signs at one or two levels.
  4. Back pain of at least 4/10 or higher using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS).
  5. Pain duration of more than 12 weeks despite trial of conservative therapy (medications, physical therapy, or chiropractic care) for 2 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Refusal to participate, provide consent, or provide follow-up information for the 24-month duration of the study.
  2. Contraindications to medial branch targeted PNS (active infection, bleeding disorders, current anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication use, allergy to iodinated contrast, penicillin or clindamycin and pregnancy or breastfeeding).
  3. More than 2 levels of clinical proven pain.
  4. Active moderate to severe lumbar radiculopathy.
  5. Intradural disc herniation.
  6. Spinal fracture of posterior elements within the past 6 months.
  7. Steroid injection in the spine within the last 30 days.
  8. Any intradiscal injection other than contrast dye or anesthetic in the last 30 days.
  9. Prior fusion at level considered to be the source of the pain.
  10. Prior lumbar spine surgery within the last 6 months.
  11. AP diameter of spinal canal less than or equal to 9mm at level to be treated.
  12. Severe uncontrolled medical condition.
  13. Severe psychological illness.
  14. History of Inflammatory arthritis.
  15. Malignancy within past 5 years except basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer.
  16. Current use of equal to greater than 45mg morphine-equivalent per day of opioid use.
  17. A history of alcohol or drug abuse within past 5 years.
  18. Use of any investigational drug within past 30 days.
  19. Severe anaphylactic/anaphylactoid reaction to any medications used.
  20. Pending litigation involving subject's back pain.
  21. No insurance coverage for any subsequent tests or procedures.
  22. Inability or unwillingness to continue rehabilitation protocols.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Other: Axial Low Back Pain
Patient diagnosed with axial low back pain not responding to conservative measures and no symptoms of radiculopathy, that is scheduled to have a SPRINT percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator placed as standard of care.
Device: SPRINT percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator placed
Placement of a SPRINT percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator targeting the bilateral medial branches at the suspected level of pain generation. This procedure is done as standard of care.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pain Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) Response From SPRINT Percutaneous Peripheral Nerve Stimulator
Time Frame: 2 months
Assessment of Pain Numeric Rating Scale (0-10) response after placement of SPRINT percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulator for chronic low back pain. 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain.
2 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Utah

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
November 22, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
May 15, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
September 9, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
August 28, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 3, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
September 4, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
December 6, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
December 3, 2022

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
December 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • IRB 127414

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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