What is Pain Management?

Pain management, or pain medicine, is a growing medical specialty dedicated to treating acute, sub-acute, and chronic pain.  The goal of pain medicine is to improve quality of life and help patients return to everyday activities, hopefully without requiring surgery.
 
A pain management physician is often part of a team of medical professionals, such as the patient's referring physician (spine surgeon, neurosurgeon, or neurologist), physical and occupational therapists, oncologist, and psychologist.

Acute, Sub-acute and Chronic Pain

Pain is generally classified as being acute or chronic. Acute pain begins quickly or suddenly and may be severe. Sub-acute pain is defined as being between acute and chronic. Depending on the cause, acute pain may last 1 to 2 months. Chronic pain is persistent and may be mild or severe. It is defined as pain lasting longer than 3-6 months.

Patient Pain Evaluation

Your pain management physician begins care by reviewing your medical history and evaluating your physical and neurological condition to find the source of your pain. Your pain medicine physician may ask when pain started and is it associated with an event such as injury; has the pain changed intensity, duration, what relieves or aggravates your pain; and associated symptoms such as nausea or weakness. If you have kept a pain diary, this information is of significant value.

An in depth discussion of your pain includes its location(s), duration, and intensity. Your physician may ask you to rate your pain on a scale of zero to 10 with 10 being the worst pain possible. Alternatively, you may be asked to notate on a picture of the front and back of body where you feel pain and designate its type (i.e. burning, sharp) and intensity (1 through 10). Pediatric patients use a pain faces diagram to help them explain their pain.

Your pain management specialist may order further diametric tests including: a CT scan, MRI, EMG or other imaging study to further evaluate your pain and diagnose its cause. Many types of spinal injections provide valuable diagnostic information such as a Facet Joint and Medial Nerve Branch Block.

Treatment Options

Depending on many factors, such as the type of pain and patient's health, treatments may be combined. Some patients are surprised to learn that a treatment that failed to provide relief before is effective when combined with one or more other therapies.

• Medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-depressants, anti-seizure drugs, and narcotics can be very helpful in lowering day-to-day pain. Specific types of anti-depressant and anti-seizure drugs are effective to reduce neuropathic pain (damaged nerve fibers).
• Injection therapies include:
  • Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection
  • Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection
  • Selective Nerve Root Block
  • Radiofrequency Ablation (RF Rhizotomy)
  • Spinal Cord Stimulation
  • Spinal Pump (Intrathecal Pump)

Pain Management Improves Quality of Life

Advances in pain medicine help thousands of pain patients every day. There are many ways to control pain and improve your quality of life. For more information about pain management and how it can help you, contact our office for a consultation.