No randomised, controlled or comparator data were found while carrying out this review. All information is therefore suboptimal. Published reports frequently use non-standard outcome measures on a hetero-geneous patient population receiving different types of intrathecal pumps and drugs over varying periods. These variables make analysis very difficult.
However, such data as are available indicate a generally positive effect of the therapy, with side-effects and complications occurring in about a quarter of the recipients, but it is difficult to draw definite conclusions because the quality of the data is so poor. Furthermore, the important clinical question: "Is this therapy any better than existing treatments?" is not answered by this review because of the lack of comparator data. The opinions from UK experts were not of such an overwhelmingly positive nature as the published reports.