Patient Selection Criteria
When to Use Neurostimulation or Intrathecal Drug Delivery

Cancer Pain
Nonmalignant Pain

Adherence to patient selection criteria is critical to good long-term success. Experience has shown that Medtronic Pain Therapies work best in a carefully selected patient population.

• More conservative therapies have failed
• An observable pathology exists that is concordant with the pain complaint
• Further surgical intervention is not indicated
• No serious untreated drug habituation exists
• Psychological evaluation and clearance for implantation has been obtained
• No contraindications to implantation exist
• A Screening Test has been successful

Psychological Assessment

The vast majority of pain practitioners recognize psychological assessment as a valuable part of pain treatment. The assessment results help create a complete picture of the patient that can be used in the decision-making process.

Information collected from the psychological assessment: (1) exposes psychological factors that should be addressed in treatment; (2) suggests specific treatments that may help resolve psychological risk factors; (3) facilitates patient selection for specific pain therapies; and (4) provides clues to evaluate the patient's response to a screening test or treatment.

For more information on psychological assessment in chronic pain, see the publication Psychological Assessment and Intervention in Implantable Therapies in the online library.

To see Citations regarding Patient Selection. . .

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Patient Selection Criteria
When to Use Neurostimulation or Intrathecal Drug Delivery
Cancer Pain
Nonmalignant Pain