The pump is surgically placed under the abdominal skin and delivers pain medication through a catheter to the area around your spinal cord. Because the pain medication is delivered directly to your spinal cord, it can be more effective than taking oral pain medications, which must travel through your system before reaching your spine.

The system can also control your pain with much smaller doses, which may reduce side effects. Intrathecal drug delivery is used to treat pain from a variety of conditions, such as chronic back and neck pain, sciatica, chronic abdominal pain, failed back and neck surgery, cancer, and reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or complex regional pain syndrome.