JUPITER, Fla. — Doctors in our area continue to seek out ways to treat pain without having to immediately turn to prescribe opioids, with steady attention on their duty to help control the opioid crisis.
A doctor in Jupiter is among those in the state trying drug-free ways to minimize pain.
Dr. George Arcos, the Medical Director at the Medical Group of South Florida, has given more than 100 patients a minimally invasive surgery, implanting a wireless pain management device.
It is called a Stim Wave spinal cord stimulation device, and unlike other spinal cord stimulation treatments, this wireless method can treat pain all over the body, not in just select locations. There is also no implanted battery or power device. That is all controlled by the patient externally.
Knowing there are non-drug options for treating pain for some patients, Arcos feels more people might seek out ways to minimize chronic pain, who might have been hesitant to see doctors previously because they worried about being prescribed opioids.
“I think it means we have to rethink how we treat pain,” Arcos said.
In the more than 100 patients who have received the device from Arcos, he has seen a dramatic decrease in opioid use.
“I can say with all the patients we’ve implanted, we’ve seen at least a 50 percent decrease in the opioids, and we’ve seen at least a quarter get off the opioids altogether,” Dr. Arcos said.
Patient James Scott lived for years with back pain.
“Sharp, jabbing pain. Enough to make you want to cry,” Scott said.
He received the device several months ago. Now, his doctor visits are decreasing. He never took opioids. “Didn’t want to become addicted,” Scott said.
But, he got injections for pain control regularly. “We had so many injections... I felt like a pin cushion.”
Now, his pain is much more manageable.
“Took me down from a level nine to a two.”
Patient Bobbie Engel is also a success story, with chronic pain resulting from a childhood injury and Fibromyalgia.
“Some days it would get up to a nine. Average was six or seven,” Engel said.
Unlike Scott, Engel did use opioids for pain management. “I was ready to try just about anything at that point,” Engel said.
After receiving the Stim Wave device, he says he is among those decreasing opioid use.
"I’ve gone from 90 tablets a month down to 30 and I think by next month I’ll be down to five to 10 tablets a month,” Engel said.
Arcos is not alone in noticing a decrease in opioid use.
A Harvard Medical study also shows opioid use has fallen by 50 percent in a five-year span, showing more awareness from doctors and patients and others in the medical field.
“The tendency from the insurers, from the government, from the patients themselves is to minimize the narcotics when possible, and we’re finally turning the corner there,” Arcos said.