The SCS (Spinal Cord Stimulator) device has two main components: an electrode and a generator. The technical goal of SCS for neuropathic pain is to mask the area of a patient's pain with a stimulation induced tingling, known as "paresthesia", because this overlap is necessary (but not sufficient) to achieve pain relief.R. B. North, M. E. Ewend, M. A. Lawton, and S. Piantadosi, "Spinal cord stimulation for chronic, intractable pain: Superiority of 'multi-channel' devices," Pain, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 119–30, 1991 Paresthesia coverage depends upon which afferent nerves are stimulated. The most easily recruited by a dorsal midline electrode, close to the pial surface of spinal cord, are the large dorsal column afferents, which produce broad paresthesia covering segments caudally.
