First procedure in India performed with Intellis rechargeable spinal cord stimulator for chronic pain management

First patient in India treated at Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai

India Medtronic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Medtronic has announced the first clinical procedure in India with the Intellis spinal cord stimulation (SCS) platform, the smallest SCS device for the management of certain types of chronic intractable pain. Dr Paresh Doshi, director of neurosurgery at the Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai, successfully implanted the first Intellis device in a patient in India for the management of pain.

The Intellis platform offers DTM SCS therapy, a differential target multiplexed spinal cord stimulation programming option to treat patients with chronic pain. DTM SCS therapy is proven on the Medtronic Intellis platform, demonstrated statistically significant and superior back pain relief for patients compared to conventional SCS in a randomised controlled trial (RCT).

“Chronic pain can affect people to the point that they can’t work, eat properly, take part in physical activity, or enjoy life. It can persist beyond the usual recovery period or occur along with a chronic health condition. While it can be challenging to manage chronic pain, attempt is made to reduce the severity of symptoms that come along. Treatment modality like spinal cord stimulation can significantly improve the quality of life by alleviating pain. The Intellis platform is a welcome option to help optimise treatment and improve the outcome in these patients. It may also improve patient-physician communication by tracking and sharing activities, therapy usage and by giving physicians an objective look at treatment progress”, said Dr Doshi.

Rahul Arora, Head-Neurosciences Therapies, Medtronic India said, “Spinal cord stimulation can be an effective alternative or adjunct treatment to other therapies that have failed to manage pain on their own. The Intellis neurostimulator is the world’s smallest implantable spinal cord stimulator. At Medtronic we are constantly designing life-transforming innovations that put patients first.”