Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Spinal Cord Stimulator Use While Driving

Steve C. Lee, MD, sclee@bidmc.harvard.edu¹, Dave Eichman, MD², Zahid Bajwa, MD³, Thomas Simopoulos, MD¹, Joshua Wootton, PhD⁴, (1) AAPM, Brookline, Massachusetts, (2) Unifour Anesthesia Associates, P.A., Hickory, North Carolina, (3) Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts, (4) Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts

Introduction: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) often leads to increased patient functionality. Manufacturers recommend patients not drive with the device turned on to prevent accidents. The purpose of our study was to find out how many of our patients with SCS drive with the device on resulting in accidents. Materials and Methods: After IRB approval patients were selected based on perceived ability to drive, use of their spinal cord stimulator, and continued contact with our clinic. Sixty-four patients were identified and contacted via telephone. Verbal consent to study participation was obtained. The participants were then asked: 1. Do you drive? 2. Do you drive with your stimulator on? 3. If so, have you had any accidents with the device on? If so, how? 4. If you did have any accidents, do you have any history of prior accidents? Results: Of the 64 patients identified from our database, 46 patients were contacted via telephone. Forty-four patients were active drivers, while two were not. Thirty-two patients stated they drove with the device on and 12 stated they did not. Of those that drove with their stimulator on, two were involved in accidents. Both of these individuals did not attribute the accident to a shock. Conclusions: There was no correlation between SCS malfunction and reported accidents. Based on clinical results, the majority of our patients with SCS drive with the device on without accidents. References: 1)St. Jude Patient Safety Information: http://www.poweryourpain.com/sb/safety 2)Physician Implant Manual. Page 11. Copyright 2008, Boston Scientific Neuromodulation. 3)Medtronic Patient Post-Implant Booklet http://professional.medtronic.com/downloads/spinal-cord-stimulation/SCS-stg3-post-implant.pdf

Funding: None