Company Acquired by Boston Scientific Develops Procedure for Chronic Back Pain
Experts say there are roughly 30 million people in the United States with chronic low back pain. In some cases, the pain is so bad they have to stop doing certain activities.
But there’s a procedure offered in Maple Grove that’s giving people with some of the most severe cases a second chance.
Jami Wittke of Buffalo is one of those people.
“One day at work, I just started to have a little bit of pain in my low back that just kind of exploded throughout the day,” she recalled.
Wittke once had a lengthy career in law enforcement; that is until she was inflicted with severe back pain.
“It was hard to walk, it was hard to get in and out of a car,” Wittke said.
She went to an orthopedic doctor and tried treatments such as joint injections and physical therapy. For a time, it worked. But she said that chronic pain reemerged a year later.
Wittke later discovered that she had a distinct type of chronic low back pain — called vertebrogenic pain — which originates from damage to endplates in your spine.
“It’s a big issue, and it’s one of the most expensive issues in medicine,” said Dr. Erik Ekstrom of Summit Orthopedics in Maple Grove, referring to back pain.
Dr. Ekstrom says that about one in six people with chronic low back pain have vertebrogenic pain.
Jami Wittke had to retire from law enforcement due to vertebrogenic pain. After undergoing the Intracept procedure, she now works as a fitness instructor.
The Intracept Procedure
After Wittke tried a few more traditional treatments with little success, Dr. Ekstrom offered her an alternative.
“Dr. Ekstrom came to me and said, ‘we have this new-ish procedure called Intracept, and gave me the folder on it,'” Wittke said. “I went home and I researched and I watched videos.”
Intracept is a minimally invasive procedure developed by Minnesota-based Relievant Medsystems, now part of Boston Scientific, that uses a probe to target the basivertebral nerve (BVN). The nerve is then burned off using a radiofrequency energy, thus preventing pain signals from going to the brain.
North Memorial Ambulatory Surgery Center in Maple Grove is one of the providers that performs this procedure.
“We’ve done about 240 cases here to date since we started this journey,” said Dr. Ekstrom. “It has a tremendous safety profile. There’s been no complications.”
It’s something to which Wittke can attest.
“Minimal downtime, there’s no metal, there’s nothing in my back, my range of motion is good,” she said.
Today, she’s not only pain free, she’s also launched a second career as a fitness instructor.
“Anytime I have the opportunity to share the change that [Intracept] has been for me, I always do,” Wittke said
Meanwhile, doctors say that not everyone with low back pain is eligible for the procedure. The criteria includes having six months of chronic low back pain, six months of failed conservative treatments (i.e. physical therapy, chiropractic care, injections), and an MRI showing that you have a specific type of change with endplate inflammation, which are called Modic changes.
Related: Boston Scientific Breaks Ground on New Maple Grove Campus
