Treatment of severe pain in a patient with a cervical spinal cord injury at C5-7 level using an intrathecal targeted drug delivery system - A case report.

BACKGROUND

Patients with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) can experience pain refractory to aggressive multimodal therapies. Here, we report the use of an intrathecal targeted drug delivery (ITDD) system to treat severe pain in patients with cervical SCI.

CASE

A 64-year-old male patient underwent spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for severe cervical SCI. We proceeded with the ITDD system, placing the catheter tip at the C6 level. After placement of the ITDD system, the patient was monitored for regular refills of morphine sulfate in the drug delivery reservoir every 6 months. We reduced the oral morphine equivalent dose from nearly 333.8 mg/day to 133.8 mg/day.

CONCLUSIONS

The ITDD system may be a useful treatment option for patients with cervical SCI who have failed conventional treatments and do not show improvement with SCS.