Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain: Causes of Long-Term Paddle-Lead Failure

Incidence of Revision Surgery in a Large Cohort of Patients With Thoracic Surgical Three-Column Paddle Leads: A Retrospective Case Review

“…Among surgical paddle implant studies over the last 15–20 years, the present study is third after two previous reports with respect to number of implants and length of follow‐up. In 1993, Barolat wrote a pioneering paper in which he described an overall 5% revision rate in 227 patients receiving plate electrodes for chronic pain ; however, it was not specified what the cause of lead failure was, nor was a follow‐up period specified.…”

“…on 167 surgical paddle implants, demonstrated a 20% revision rate over a five‐year follow‐up period . Akmal and Eljamel reported a 15% revision rate over an 11‐year period in 107 paddle implants . At two years, Ohnmeiss et al.…”

“…Over the last 15–20 years, more than 20 detailed reports on thoracic surgical paddle implants have described lead complication/revision rates in the range of 0–50% . The largest study, by Falowski et al.…”

Device Complication and Failure Management in Neuromodulation

“…In 2008, Akmal and Eljamel reported on the causes of long‐term paddle lead failure in SCS. In this study of 107 patients over 14 years, the authors used exclusively a single column four contact paddle lead, and found a primary lead failure rate of 14.9% and recurrent lead failure rate of 56.2%.…”

Appendix II: Troubleshooting Malfunctioning Neurostimulators

“…Broken leads need to be replaced. During replacement the continuity of the electric circuit can be tested and the leads can be inspected under the microscope [1].…”