Cleveland-based SPR Therapeutics announced it has received a $1.45 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a system for treating post-amputation pain.
The small business innovation research (SBIR) phase II grant, combined with a $2.8 million research grant from the Department of Defense, will fund trails of SPR’s peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) system to provide therapy in the management of phantom and residual limb pain following amputation.
“Access to this technology opens the door to treatment of many currently unaddressed chronic peripheral pain conditions, such as post-amputation pain, for which appropriate treatment options do not exist,” Steven P. Cohen, MD, director of Pain Research at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, stated in a press release.
The SPR approach involves insertion of a lead into the skin. Ultrasound guidance is used to position the lead remote from the nerve and SPR’s system then activates the targeted sensory nerve fibers without activating pain or motor fibers.
The funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be used to develop SPR’s second-generation implantable pulse generator (IPG) for patients in need of long-term stimulation to manage chronic pain following amputation and other types of neuropathic pain conditions. This project will result in the development of a small implantable device that can be comfortably placed within an amputee’s residual limb.
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