SSM Health Medical Group in Jefferson City, Mo., is one of the few hospitals in the country offering the ReActiv8 procedure to treat chronic back pain, local CBS affiliate KRCG reported April 21.
ReActiv8 is a restorative neurostimulation implant used to treat chronic lumbar pain. The implant stimulates nerves that supply the lumbar multifidus muscle to generate contraction of the muscle, which can help patients recover from chronic lumbar pain.
The implant is designed to reactivate the deep multifidus muscle to restore function and stability to the spine and treat the root cause of the pain instead of "covering it up with medications or physical therapy or things that the patients have already tried," spine surgeon Jeff Lehmen, MD, told KRCG.
After implantation, ReActiv8 generates electrical pulses twice a day for 30 minutes that cause the deep multifidus muscles to contract and relax, according to the company.
"What this device does is it stimulates the nerve in order to get these muscles to fire," Dr. Lehmen said. "The reason that's important is you cannot make those muscles fire on your own, you cannot rehab them; it requires neurostimulation, and that's the whole concept of this device."
ReActiv8 was designed by Mainstay Medical, which was founded in Minneapolis in 2008, according to its website.