Author: The Stance Integrated Pain and Spine Clinic Koramangala, Bangalore Date:

If you are searching for a solution to your chronic or acute pain that has been unresponsive to conservative treatments like medicine and exercises then it may be time to find an Interventional Pain doctor who can help.

Interventional pain procedures are generally used when pain is severe enough to interfere with daily activities, and other treatment types have not been successful in reducing pain.

If medications and other conservative treatment methods haven’t worked for you, don’t despair! There are many alternative ways to combat your chronic pain and return to a normal routine, and interventional pain medicine can really help get you back to normal.

Similar to other pain management treatments, such as taking prescription medications, interventional pain procedures can help you manage your pain.

But what makes interventional pain management different is that it uses techniques, such as injections or other advanced medical procedures to directly address the source of your pain i.e., neuropathies, nerve compressions, inflamed joints, bursa, ligaments, muscles, e.t.c.

About Interventional Pain Physicians?

An interventional pain management specialist is a physician with special training in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of all different types of pain.

The pain physician has in-depth knowledge of the physiology of pain, the ability to evaluate patients with complicated pain problems, an understanding of specialized tests for diagnosing painful conditions, appropriate prescribing of medications for varying pain problems, and skills to perform specialized medical interventional pain control procedures.

Common Conditions Treated by Interventional Pain Medicine Physicians.

•  NERVE PAIN, NEUROPATHIC PAIN

• COMPLEX IDIOPATHIC PAIN

• ARTHRITIS AND MULTIPLE JOINT PAIN

• CANCER PAIN

• CHRONIC HEADACHES, MOUTH, OR FACE PAIN

• LOW BACK PAIN, NECK PAIN

• REPETITIVE STRESS INJURIES

• SOFT TISSUE INJURIES, SPORTS INJURIES

• MYOFASCIAL AND TRIGGER POINT PAIN

• FIBROMYALGIA

Is Interventional Pain Management an Option for You?

You may need to try several interventional pain management techniques or perhaps a combination of these techniques as part of a comprehensive pain management plan. These techniques can provide pain relief to improve your quality of life.  As with any procedure, interventional pain management procedures have certain risks but are very safe in experienced hands. Have a discussion with your doctor about whether interventional pain management is an option for you.

Types of Interventional Pain Management Treatments

There are many types of Interventional Pain Management treatments. The type of treatment you receive will be based on your specific condition and symptoms, as each type of treatment varies in terms of invasiveness. Some of the most common Interventional Pain Management techniques include

POTENT MEDICATIONS:

Some pain conditions are self-limiting and just require a good combination of painkillers that are strong yet safe. Painkillers are of many types, some are better for nerve pains, some better for musculoskeletal pains, and their side effect profiles are also different. A pain physician can judiciously titrate different pain medications for your particular pain so that the benefits are added and the side effects are minimized.

THOROUGH EXAMINATION:

A thorough physical examination from a pain point of view tells a lot more than any blood test or imaging.

DIAGNOSTIC BLOCKS:

This is the most important tool in finding out the exact pain generator, much more accurate than any other procedure. A small amount of local anaesthetic to the suspected pain generator gives immediate relief. This is the greatest confirmation of the diagnosis and is much more accurate than an MRI, CT, and X-Ray.

INJECTIONS:

They send powerful medications, such as depot steroids, onto or near your nerves to relieve pain. One of the most common injections is an epidural steroid injection in your lumbar spine (low back). This injection sends steroids directly to the nerve root that’s inflamed.  The steroid is a depot steroid, designed to stay at the place of injection. It doesn’t enter the blood and so doesn’t go to any other part of the body. This has a double benefit, the medicine stays at the diseased part for a long time and so decreases the nerve sensitivity and reverses the molecular changes that occur at a chronic pain site, and secondly, it doesn’t cause any side effects as it never goes to any other organs like heart, kidney, and liver.

RADIOFREQUENCY RHIZOTOMY :

Using ultrasound guidance and a needle with an electrode at the tip that gets heated, radiofrequency rhizotomy temporarily turns off a nerve’s ability to send pain messages to your brain. Other names for radiofrequency rhizotomy are radiofrequency ablation and neuro ablation.

PULSED RADIOFREQUENCY:

This method is a modification of the radiofrequency where the current is given in pulses so that the nerve does not get heated but just gets reset. This can bring miraculous relief to many painful conditions like headaches, face pains, trigeminal neuralgia, etc.

OZONE TREATMENT:

Ozone is an inflammation modulator, which means it reduces the bad inflammation that causes pain and increases the good inflammation that is required for recovery. Intradiscal ozone therapy, for example, uses ozone to decrease the disc bulge to reduce your pain.

INFUSIONS:

Infusions involve the delivery of pain relief drugs directly into the body. These are generally for longer-term use. Ketamine Infusion is very effective for chronic pain, depression, fibromyalgia, CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), and many other very painful conditions.

Apart from the listed services, as per the condition of the patients in an integrated approach, there are many other interventional pain management techniques and combinations that can help you cope with pain.

Other Interventional Pain Management Techniques

Sometimes interventional pain management techniques play a part in a multi-disciplinary approach to relieve your pain and other symptoms. For many patients, this procedure can provide moderate to major pain relief lasting for several months to years. During these pain-free months, however, your doctor will most likely recommend structural correction by manual therapy structural corrective manual treatments like manipulation restore the normal biomechanical response which helps in restoring normalcy to the dysfunction and prevents recurrence.

Once the treatment plan has been determined, your interventional pain management physician will help you to coordinate the different therapies you need. In many cases, interventional pain management treatments and services are offered in one facility, eliminating the need to go from place to place to receive care.

STANCE – Integrated Pain and Spine Clinic offers the most advanced Integrated Medicine approach where Interventional Pain Procedures and Manual Medicine Structural Corrective Treatments help you address underlying physical problems that are causing pain.  It is important to follow your doctor’s instructions as advised. Your full participation in your treatment is important for a successful outcome of the challenges of chronic nerve pain.

STANCE offers extended help and support at every listed service with utmost transparency and appropriate case referrals.

For the first time, STANCE brings the cost-effective and clinically proven osteopathic and integrated medicine approach to lower back, and neck pain, and common and complex spine issues.

HEAL BETTER. HEAL FASTER

“Our approach has not only simplified the treatments but it also actively involves the patients to recover by our very simplified, yet very dynamic treatment protocols.”