Skin Closure Technique and Postprocedural Pain after Spinal Cord Stimulator Implantation: A Retrospective Review

Figure 1

Change in procedural NRS by postoperative day. Change in mean NRS pain score is depicted from POD#1 to POD#10 based on closure technique. The total overall sample that reported all three scores (preprocedural pain score, POD#1 score, and POD#10 score) was 116 patients and were included in this trend line analysis to visualize chance in pain scores over time. Trend line analysis was performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient r. On POD#1, the mean ± standard error was 6.7 ± 0.3 (n = 68) for the staples cohort and 6.3 ± 0.3 for the sutures cohort (n = 48). On POD#10, the mean ± standard error was 2.4 ± 0.3 (n = 68) for the staples cohort and 2.6 ± 0.4 for the suture cohort (n = 48).