Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: Patient fitted with world-first spinal cord stimulator to treat chronic pain at Royal North Shore Hospital 
  
 Posted 
  
 Doctors at the Royal North Shore Hospital have fitted a patient with a spinal cord stimulator that sends out electrical currents through the nerves to provide pain relief in a world-first procedure. 
  
 The doctors said the Saluda device could also help patients with other nerve conditions, including Parkinson's disease. 
  
 The first recipient was 60-year-old Joe Grewal, who has been suffering chronic back pain for more than 30 years. 
  
 He has tried everything from back surgery to a morphine implant. 
  
 Doctors implanted the device yesterday to help relieve some of his pain. 
  
 "I feel amazing actually," he told Channel 9. 
  
 "I'm just so excited. My life will change now for the better." 
  
 The spinal cord stimulator, which sends electrical pulses to replace pain sensations, was fitted by the Royal North Shore Hospital's pain specialist Dr Charles Brooker. 
  
 "Spinal cord stimulators have been around for 20 to 30 years, which involve a wire sitting just outside the spinal cord, connected to a battery with a computer, just like a pacemaker really," he said. 
  
 "It sends signals into the spinal cord and so the person with pain feels tingling in the pain area and that confuses the brain and they don't feel the pain, they just feel a pleasant tingling sensation." 
  
 Dr Brooker said unlike previous spinal cord stimulators, this new technology sends signals back from the body to help guide treatment. 
  
 "So that means a machine can adjust itself to produce whatever set level the patient wants, and that's a big advance because previously, whenever people moved or their heart was pulsating, various things would make the electrical signal waver up and down quite significantly and they would get shock sensations and not being able to live their lives effectively in many cases. 
  
 "So this device is a big advance as it records the signal coming back out of the nervous system." 
  
 Dr Brooker said the surgery on Mr Grewal appears to have been a success. 
  
 "I saw him this morning, he's very happy, he's a little bit sore from the surgery," he said. 
  
 "He said the device is working well covering his pain area. 
  
 "The next thing to do will be to switch the feedback system on so that when he's walking around and doing his normal activities he gets really nice, smooth, consistent stimulation." 
  
 Device could offer an alternative to pain-killer medication 
  
 Professor Michael Cousins, the director of the Pain Management Research Institute at the Royal North Shore Hospital and University of Sydney, said the device could have wider applications and could eventually be used for patients with Parkinson's disease. 
  
 "This will lead to great improvements in spinal cord stimulation treatment but also has a potential for big improvements in the nervous system for other conditions in addition to chronic pain," he said. 
  
 One-in-five Australians suffers chronic pain and it is estimated to cost more than $30 billion a year. 
  
 Professor Cousins said this device could offer chronic pain sufferers an alternative to pain-killer medications. 
  
 "A study done by the Pain Management Research Institute and Access Economics estimated $35 billion a year and a lot of that could be saved," he said. 
  
 "At the moment we calculated the cost of the neurostimulation system is recouped in about two-and-a-half years but that's with existing systems. 
  
 "We anticipate that this new system may be a lot more effective over a long term." 
  
 About 30 patients will be recruited to trial the device. 
  
 The company is also seeking approval to carry out a similar trial in the United States. 
  
 Topics: medical-procedures, back-pain, pain, health, north-sydney-2060 ||||| Doctors in Australia have carried out a pioneering procedure to treat chronic pain, fitting a permanent spinal cord implant which can record signals from the nervous system and adjust the strength of impulses sent to affected areas. 
  
 The procedure has been hailed as a breakthrough for treatment of chronic pain and could help patients to avoid pain-killers, which can be extremely costly. 
  
 Joe Grewal, the first human to be fitted with a permanent implant, said he has suffered chronic back pain for more than 30 years and now “feels amazing”. 
  
 The 60-year-old said his pain level had dropped from eight of ten before the treatment to “two or three” immediately afterwards. The device, developed by Saluda, was fitted at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney on Tuesday. 
  
 "It's a significant decrease in pain,” he told Fairfax Media. “I'm so excited about it." 
  
 Dr Charles Brooker, the specialist who fitted the implant, said it was a “big advance” because the device could record signals emerging from the nervous system. 
  
 "Spinal cord stimulators [send] signals into the spinal cord and so the person with pain feels tingling in the pain area and that confuses the brain and they don't feel the pain, they just feel a pleasant tingling sensation," Dr Brooker told ABC News. 
  
 “[The new] machine can adjust itself to produce whatever set level the patient wants, and that's a big advance because previously, whenever people moved or their heart was pulsating, various things would make the electrical signal waver up and down quite significantly and they would get shock sensations and not be able to live their lives effectively in many cases.” 
  
 Doctors believe the implants could have wider uses beyond chronic pain treatment and potentially help patients with Parkinson's disease. 
  
 Claire Bale, head of research, communications and engagement at Parkinson’s UK, said: “This new spinal cord stimulation treatment could be an important new tool in the armoury of options for tackling pain in Parkinson’s – but further research is needed to understand more about the types of pain experienced by people with the condition, and what treatments work best. 
  
 "We know that pain can be a major issue for some people with Parkinson’s, which is why at Parkinson's UK we’re funding the largest ever study of this aspect of the condition.” |||||
Output:
Sixty-year-old Joe Grewal has had chronic back pain for half his life. Back surgery didn't help. Neither did a morphine implant. But this week he underwent a first-ever procedure that's left him "feeling great," reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Doctors at Australia's Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney permanently implanted a spinal cord stimulator in Grewal's back. The device senses pain signals traveling up the spine and sends electrical impulses to the brain. The brain gets confused and interprets the mixed signals as a "pleasant tingling" instead of pain, explains surgeon Charles Brooker. Immediately following the procedure, Grewal said his pain level was down from an eight out of 10 to a two or three, according to the Telegraph. Similar implants have been around for decades, but they were touchy when it came to the electric currents they were sending out, the Telegraph reports. The strength of their signals could be affected by everything from walking to an increased heart rate. The new implant receives signals back from the nervous system to better regulate its behavior and thus marks a huge advance, says Brooker. "That means a machine can adjust itself to produce whatever set level the patient wants." Experts think implants like Grewal's could be used to treat other conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, and might help replace pain killers for people with chronic pain. Doctors plan on testing the implant on 30 patients in Australia and are seeking permission to test it in the US, as well. (A new study finds that regular exercise can offset the hazards of sitting too long.)