How Spinal Cord Stimulation Can Help Alleviate Your Chest Pain

Your spine is the workhorse of your musculoskeletal system. It provides your back with stability and allows you to stand up straight. It also allows messages to travel to and from the spinal nerves that run through the spinal canal.

Anything that compresses the nerves, such as herniated discs, bone spurs, or spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), can send pain radiating up and down your back and leave you with unrelenting pain.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) delivers electrical impulses directly to your spinal cord, interfering with the pain signals so they’re not processed, bringing relief. The procedure involves a small device implanted under the skin near your spine to stimulate the spinal cord nerves.

At Interventional Pain Center, Dr. James Stephens offers several interventional pain treatments in Legacy Office Park, Norman, Oklahoma, including spinal cord stimulation (SCS). Interestingly, SCS can help manage chest pain in addition to spinal conditions. Here’s how.

Spine-related causes of chest pain

Not all chest pains stem from heart problems; some are due to issues with the spinal nerves that radiate pain into the chest.

Cervical angina is a potential cause of noncardiac chest pain and originates from problems in the cervical (neck) spine, such as nerve root compression. These problems overwhelmingly occur in the C4-C7 region, and the pain in the front of the chest may be sharp, aching, or squeezing. Symptoms may appear at rest or become worse with exercise.

A pinched nerve in your neck or collarbone may radiate pain to your chest or back, generate a “pins and needles” sensation, or cause skin to become sensitive. Too much pressure on a nerve for too long can prevent it from working normally.

In the same way, degeneration inside the costovertebral joint (where the thoracic spine and ribs meet) may pinch an intercostal nerve, causing pain along the rib.

When upper back and chest pain occur together, the symptoms vary widely, depending on the cause and severity of the problem. The pain may be one-sided (left or right) or simultaneously on both sides.

Two common causes of simultaneous back and chest pain are:

1. Thoracic spondylosis

Thoracic spine degeneration may be caused by thoracic osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and other wear-and-tear conditions. As the spine degenerates with age, one or more intervertebral foramina (openings in the vertebrae where the spinal nerves exit the canal) may shrink, a condition called foraminal stenosis.

In the cramped space, a spinal nerve may become compressed or inflamed, and pain may radiate from the spine in the upper back along a rib to the chest.

2. Thoracic herniated disc

An intervertebral disc cushions the vertebrae, absorbing shock and allowing for movement. It comprises a tough outer layer (annulus fibrosus) and a gel-like inner layer (nucleus pulposus). If the annulus tears partially or entirely, the nucleus begins leaking outward, impinging on nearby nerve roots.

Though relatively rare, a thoracic herniated disc can radiate pain along the nerve’s path from the upper back to the chest.

What is spinal cord stimulation?

Pain should, and often is, a protective process. It tells you when you’ve become injured and is a sign of many illnesses and diseases.

However, pain isn’t always protective. Some conditions cause severe and intense pain, or pain that never goes away, wreaking havoc on your physical and mental health.

Chronic pain changes your brain and nervous system, making pain feel more severe (hyperalgesia) or causing the nerves to send pain signals when nothing is wrong (allodynia). The signals may be intermittent or constant.

A spinal cord stimulator is a neuromodulation device. It uses a mild electrical current to stimulate specific nerve fibers in your spinal cord. By swamping the nerves with “chatter,” the pain signals can’t reach your brain, and you feel better.

SCS is usually reserved for severe chronic pain, and it becomes an option when more conservative options for controlling pain have failed.

SCS and chest pain

SCS works on noncardiac chest pain the same way it works on pain coming from other damaged nerves in the spinal canal. The implanted device targets the nerve or nerves causing the pain and sends out electrical signals that interfere with the pain message, garbling it before it reaches the brain. The result is relief.

Are you interested in learning more about SCS or whether you’re a good candidate for the procedure? Call Interventional Pain Center at 405-759-8407 or use our online booking tool to set up a consultation with Dr. Stephens today.