Intrathecal opioids for control of chronic low back pain during deep brain stimulation procedures.

Patients with chronic low back pain may not be able to endure the supine position required by the lengthy deep brain stimulation procedure. Many neurophysiologists severely restrict the use of opioids and sedative drugs during deep brain stimulation procedures due to the concern for depression of cellular firing frequencies used to map the brain for placement of the stimulator leads. We present two cases in which spinal opioids were used to achieve prolonged pain relief in patients with chronic back pain, without altering cellular firing critical for brain mapping.