Chronic pain can make life miserable, but one relatively new treatment does offer some hope.
Dorsal root ganglion spinal cord stimulation (DRG) emerged as a chronic pain treatment around 2010. It's similar to peripheral nerve stimulation or spinal cord stimulation (SCS), which are often effective pain relief techniques, especially for large areas of pain.
DRG stimulations offers a more targeted pain relief to a specific area, such as a foot or hip. The stimulation doesn't change with activity.SCS patients often report that a change in body position can cause either tingling or a prickling sensation, but that doesn't happen with DRG.
With DRG, stimulators are surgically implanted near the spinal nerves at the dorsal root ganglion, which are clusters of sensory neurons. According to Penn State Health, these nerves regulate sensations that travel through the nerve columns from the spinal column to the brain. Each DRG is associated with different areas of the body.
The electrical leads have four contacts that are placed over the DRG. They connect to a pulse generator implanted in the low back or upper buttock. Patients actually go home with a remote controller that can switch between stimulation settings, according to Neuromodulation.
A 2019 study of more than 200 cases, reported in PubMed Central, showed that 63 percent of patients reported greater than 50 percent pain relief after one year. Participants reported relief of 70 percent or more for leg and back pain and 80 percent reduction in paind for foot and groin pain.
