A hospital in Chelmsford is the first in the country to offer self-paying patients a ground breaking new treatment for back pain, the biggest single cause of disability in the UK.

The Chelmsford Private Day Surgery Hospital is exclusively offering a new electronic device called ReActiv8, following successful NHS trials.

The innovative equipment is implanted beneath the skin – similar to a pacemaker – and sends electrical signals to the muscles of the lower spine when activated by the user.

Research has found that chronic lower back pain is significantly reduced in patients with ReActiv8 after three months and could completely eradicate pain in three years.

It works by stimulating nerves close to the L3 vertebra by using two electrical leads that are connected to a small battery-powered remote control device via wireless technology.

These shocks then activate the muscles deep in the back that have usually been inactive within sufferers and have therefore weakened over time.

Lower back pain alone causes 11 per cent of all disability in the UK and the number of people it affects is on the rise.

Dr Simon Thomson, Consultant in Pain Management and Neuromodulation at The Chelmsford, in New London Road, operated on 11 lower back pain sufferers as part of the NHS-funded trial.

He said: “ReActiv8 is a ‘game changer’.

“Lower back pain can be an excruciating, debilitating condition for many sufferers.

“Until now the treatment options for lower back pain have been physical therapy, pain management or major surgery and while successful in many cases, ReActiv8 takes the treatment options to the next level.”

The ReActiv8 device takes less than two hours to fit, usually under local anesthetic and the patient will return home the same day.

Dan Austin has been struggling with “excruciating” back pain since the age of 21.

The 44-year-old, who works in a strenuous manual job as a site engineer for delivery giants UPS, in Stanford-le-Hope, described the results after the operation as “unbelievable”.

He said: “Any pain I feel completely disappears after I activate the technology, it’s amazing. I now have a better posture, I can manage any pain and I am much more confident in anything physical that I have to do.

“It’s completely changed my life.”

To find out more about ReActiv8 which is only available as a self paying patient at The Chelmsford, visit www.thechelmsford.co.uk