Spinal Cord Stimulation Replaces Long-Term Opioid Regimens
Interventional pain physicians increasingly specify spinal cord stimulation over long-term opioid therapy for chronic radicular pain, since targeted neuromodulation delivers pain relief without the dependency and systemic side effect risk that opioid regimens carry across a patient's full treatment course and daily activity level. That clinical preference is pulling prescribing toward stimulation device makers even where procedure cost runs considerably higher than comparable pharmacological regimens, because payers increasingly recognise reduced long-term opioid dependency as offsetting device implant cost. Medtronic and Abbott have both expanded stimulation device indications specifically to capture patients previously managed on opioid-only regimens.
Market Impact: Requires 60%+ non-opioid pathway ac








