St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) announced today that a 62-year-old man from Shenzhen, Guangdong province has become the first patient in China to be implanted with the Eon™ neurostimulator, a rechargeable device used to help manage chronic pain. Despite prior back surgeries, the patient suffered from chronic back pain for more than a decade.
The Eon neurostimulator, which is the first rechargeable spinal cord stimulator to be approved for use in China, was recently approved by the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for the management of chronic low back pain and pain from back surgeries that have failed.
“Chronic pain is a serious health issue in China,” said Professor Zhang De Ren, M.D., an interventional pain physician at the Shenzhen Nanshan Hospital of Shenzhen, Guangdong province who performed the procedure. “We are excited to be able to provide an advanced therapy such as neurostimulation in order to improve patient outcomes.”
The Eon neurostimulator is designed to provide spinal cord stimulation therapy. Similar to a cardiac pacemaker, this “pacemaker for pain” delivers mild electrical pulses to a lead or leads that are placed in the epidural space near the spine to interrupt or mask the transmission of pain signals to the brain. Once activated, the system’s programs are adjusted and fine-tuned to best manage the patient’s pain.
“Implanting the first patient in China with a rechargeable neurostimulator represents an important step toward broadening the availability of this therapy,” said Chris Chavez, president of the St. Jude Medical Neuromodulation Division. “We are proud to provide physicians access to technology that can deliver sustainable relief for chronic pain sufferers who may have exhausted other therapy options.”