Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy

Ongoing educational programs for clinicians who treat severe spasticity.

CEU Programs

Title Description
CEU Education Programs for Physical and Occupational Therapists

"Focus on Rehabilitation: Advances in Spasticity Management" teaches the latest in severe spasticity management, including diagnosis, treatments, and rehabilitation strategies.

The program uses the clinical decision-making process to determine the best intervention and rehabilitation approach, emphasizing ITB TherapySM (Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy).

Use the link below to see if the course is available in your area.

Register

Additional Opportunities

Title Description
National Symposiums

Medtronic offers three basic/advanced national symposiums per year. Physicians, nurses, and therapists are nominated for these courses by their Medtronic representatives.

These courses use peer-to-peer discussion, expert lectures, case studies, and hands-on experiences to expand knowledge and skills in the use of ITB Therapy (Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy) for the management of severe spasticity.

For more information or to attend a course, contact your Medtronic representative.
Onsites and Proctorships

These programs offer one-on-one, peer-to-peer training opportunities on the use of ITB Therapy (Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy). These programs are targeted to clinicians who would like a broader knowledge of and experience with this treatment modality. To request an onsite or proctorship, please contact your Medtronic representative.

  • Onsites
    These mentorship programs connect clinicians inexperienced in ITB Therapy with more experienced clinicians. Onsites are held at the mentoring physician's center. These programs train on the following topics: new center start-up, implant technique, rehabilitation post-implantation, patient management, patient selection, and screening tests.
  • Proctorships
    These programs provide clinicians experienced in ITB Therapy the opportunity to visit another clinician who is seeking to expand his or her knowledge in this area. The experienced clinician serves as a mentor and provides feedback to the clinician regarding current intrathecal baclofen therapy practice. 
PMC Courses
(Coming Soon)

These courses are designed to prepare patient management coordinators for the continuous management of patients receiving ITB Therapy. This includes education on the basic and advanced aspects of the programmer, refill techniques, and basic troubleshooting. These courses are targeted to clinicians responsible for overseeing the spasticity management programs in their healthcare settings (RN, NP, PA).

Regional Courses

These regionally based courses use peer-to-peer discussion, expert lectures, case studies, and hands-on experience to expand knowledge and skills in the use of ITB Therapy for managing severe spasticity.

Each course offers a focused opportunity and may include: knowledge and skills experience in all 4 phases of ITB Therapy directed at one or more patient population groups.

These courses are targeted to practicing clinicians with varying levels of experience in using implantable devices for spasticity management.

Roundtables

Roundtables are informal, interactive, peer-to-peer discussions of topics related to ITB Therapy. Discussions may also include a formal presentation, panel discussion, and case studies. These events are targeted to clinicians looking to increase their knowledge of ITB Therapy. For more information, contact your Medtronic representative.

For more information on the indications, contraindications, warnings, and precautions for the SynchroMed programmable infusion systems, please review the device brief summaries for the SynchroMed II Drug Infusion System and the SynchroMed EL Infusion System.

ITB Therapy (Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy) is indicated for use in the management of severe spasticity. For spasticity of spinal cord origin, ITB Therapy via an implantable infusion system should be reserved for patients unresponsive to oral baclofen or those who experience intolerable CNS side effects at effective doses. Patients with spasticity due to traumatic brain injury should wait at least one year after the injury before consideration of long-term intrathecal baclofen therapy.

Indications, Safety & Warnings for ITB Therapy: Intrathecal Baclofen Withdrawal: Abrupt discontinuation of intrathecal baclofen, regardless of the cause, has resulted in sequelae that include high fever, altered mental status, exaggerated rebound spasticity, and muscle rigidity, that in rare cases has advanced to rhabdomyolysis, multiple organ-system failure, and death.

Prevention of abrupt discontinuation of intrathecal baclofen requires careful attention to programming and monitoring of the infusion system, refill scheduling and procedures, and pump alarms. Patients and caregivers should be advised of the importance of keeping scheduled refill visits and should be educated on the early symptoms of baclofen withdrawal. Special attention should be given to patients at risk (e.g., spinal cord injuries at T-6 or above, communication difficulties, history of withdrawal symptoms from oral or intrathecal baclofen).

This therapy is contraindicated in patients who are hypersensitive to baclofen. Implantation of the infusion system is contraindicated if the patient is of insufficient body size, requires a pump implant deeper than 2.5 cm, or, in the presence of spinal anomalies or active infection.

The most frequent drug adverse events vary by indication but include: hypotonia (34.7%), somnolence (20.9%), headache (10.7%), convulsion (10.0%), dizziness (8.0%), urinary retention (8.0%), nausea (7.3%), and paresthesia (6.7%). Pump system component failures leading to pump stall, or dosing/programming errors may result in clinically significant overdose or underdose. Acute massive overdose may result in coma and may be life threatening.

The most frequent and serious adverse events related to device and implant procedures are catheter dislodgement from the intrathecal space, catheter break/cut, and implant site infection including meningitis. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may cause patient injury, system damage, operational changes to the pump, and changes in flow rate.

Please refer to the full prescribing information and system information for details or call Medtronic at 1-800-328-0810. Rx Only. Lioresal® is a registered trademark of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

January 2008