Section 15: PROCO

Question 1

What is the main goal of the PROCO study?

Answer 1

To understand the difference in patient pain relief for high frequency stimulation vs low frequency stimulation

Question 2

Which frequency requires more battery charge? High or low?

Answer 2

High!!

Question 3

In the PROCO study, what is described to use less battery?

Answer 3

Low frequency and paresthesia SCS

Question 4

Which modality of SCS therapy results in analgesia in minutes to hours?

Answer 4

Paresthesia SCS

Question 5

Which modality of SCS therapy results in analgesia in several hours to days?

Answer 5

Sub-perception SCS

Question 6

What type of study is PROCO?

Answer 6

Randomized control trial, multicenter, double blind, crossover

Question 7

Which doctor lead the PROCO study?

Answer 7

Dr. Thomson

Question 8

True or false: the PROCO study showed the high frequency was more effective in analgesia than low frequency.

Answer 8

False! Both showed the same effectiveness

Question 9

What did patients wear in order to track their pain scores 3x per day?

Answer 9

Wrist worn electronic diaries

Question 10

List the 5 steps that occurred in the PROCO trial:

Answer 10

1. Patient consented and met criteria
2. Patient trialed SCS
3. After trial, patient reported 50% pain relief or more from trial and moved to implant
4. Sweet spot research at 10khz
5. Rate randomization at sweet spot of 1, 4, 7, & 10 kHz for 8-16 weeks

Question 11

What percentage of pain relief did patients receive on average across ALL frequencies ( 1,4,7,&10)

Answer 11

50%

Question 12

What percentage of patients preferred 1 kHz at the 3 month follow up?

Answer 12

50%

Question 13

Name the main limitation of the PROCO study.

Answer 13

The sweet spot was determined only at 10khz