Solution for Severe Chronic Pain

A handheld device allows chronic pain sufferers equipped with an automatic drug pump to better control pain medication dosage.

The Medtronic (Minneapolis, MN, USA) Personal Therapy Manager (PTM), a hand-held device about the size of a cell phone, allows people with severe chronic pain to use the company's SynchroMed II drug pump to manually deliver supplemental doses of pain medication. After a manual dose is delivered, the new system imposes a lockout interval to prevent overdose. The PTM has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The SynchroMed system is used to treat all types of severe chronic pain by delivering small, controlled amounts of medication to the intrathecal space, the fluid-filled area in the spinal column through which pain signals travel. Previously, patients using the pump, implanted just under the skin of the lower abdomen, relied on constant doses of medication that had been pre-set by a physician.

"This should help many of those living with chronic pain, including people with debilitating daily pain related to cancer or their cancer treatment, take control of their pain therapy and significantly enhance their quality of life,” said Dr. Allen Burton, associate professor and section chief, cancer pain management, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA).




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