Patent ID: 8364273

Claim:
A method of stimulating nerve tissue of a patient using an implantable pulse generator to treat chronic pain in the patient, the method comprising: storing, in the implantable pulse generator, one or more first stimulation parameters that define a first stimulation program for tonic stimulation using electrical pulses, wherein the first stimulation program is adapted, by itself, to reduce the chronic pain of the patient and cause paresthesia in the patient; storing, in the implantable pulse generator, one or more second stimulation parameters that define a second stimulation program for electrical pulses in a plurality of bursts of multiple electrical pulses, wherein (i) the second stimulation program is substantially quiescent between the plurality of bursts of multiple electrical pulses and each of the plurality of bursts of multiple electrical and (ii) each of the plurality of bursts of multiple electrical pulses exhibits an inter-pulse interval of 0.005 seconds or less; generating, by the implantable pulse generator, a combination of the burst stimulation and the tonic stimulation according to the first and second stimulation programs by repeating the first and second stimulation programs in cycles, providing the combination of the burst and the tonic stimulation from the implantable pulse generator to a stimulation lead; and applying the burst and tonic stimulation to the nerve tissue of the patient via one or more electrodes of the stimulation lead to reduce the chronic pain of the patient, wherein the combination of the burst and the tonic stimulation provides a reduced level of paresthesia to the patient compared to the tonic stimulation according to the first stimulation program by itself.