Interventional Pain Management
Interventional Pain Management is a specialized type of medicine used to improve a patient’s quality of life. It is effective for patients that are suffering from chronic severe pain in Palm Coast, Daytona Beach, or DeLand, and treatments involve the use of diagnostic imagining procedures and precise injections.
Two Ways to Treat Pain
There are two ways to treat pain: medical pain management and interventional pain management. Medical pain management utilizes pharmaceutical drugs to treat pain. This method can work for reducing inflammation. There are instances where the pain will persist in which case further diagnostic measures are necessary.
When medical pain management isn’t successful, interventional pain management is a great next step. Interventional pain management is a medical subspecialty that utilizes interventional approaches to block pain. If acute or chronic pain prevents you from participating in your day-to-day activities, interventional techniques can alleviate your pain so you can lead a more fulfilling life.
The first step of this process is to perform diagnostic imaging and using diagnostic blocking to identify where the pain is coming from. Usually this is the middle step following medication and before surgery.
Interventional Pain Management FAQs
Some of the most common interventional pain management techniques and treatments include:
- Trigger point injections (TPI): A TPI is used to relax knots in the muscles that cause pain and may even irritate surrounding nerves. During the procedure, your provider inserts a syringe full of an anesthetic or saline, sometimes mixed with a corticosteroid, directly into your trigger point. This renders the point inactive and alleviates pain.
- Nerve block: There are several different types of nerve blocks that provide pain relief, depending on the location and type of pain you have. To help alleviate chronic nerve pain, your provider injects a nerve-numbing medication straight into the nerve that’s causing you discomfort. This blocks pain signals from that nerve and reduces inflammation to give the nerve time to heal.
- Radiofrequency ablation (RFA): RFA is a pain-relief treatment that uses radio waves to produce an electrical current, which heats up a small portion of nerve tissue. This reduces pain signals from that area and gives your body time to heal.
- Epidural injections: Epidural injections are most commonly used to relieve chronic back pain. Your provider injects an anti-inflammatory medication into your epidural space, an area that surrounds the fluid-filled sac around your spinal cord. An epidural injection can help reduce swelling and inflammation that may be putting pressure on the nerves around your spine.
- Facet joint injections: A facet joint injection is a minimally invasive procedure in which a small amount of corticosteroid or steroid is injected directly into the facet joint that’s causing you pain. The facet joints connect your vertebrae to one another on the spine. They provide much-needed stability and flexibility for your spine. When damaged, these joints can cause neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, or even pain and numbness in the arms and legs. Many patients experience immediate pain relief from facet joint injections.
There are several types of pain and conditions that interventional pain management treats, including:
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Arthritis pain
- Joint pain
- Chronic headaches
- Migraines
- Muscle pain
- Facial pain
- Jaw pain
Most interventional pain treatments are designed to provide dramatic relief for chronic conditions when more conservative therapies haven’t worked. They reduce inflammation and pain, so your body has time to heal while you continue living your life.
Multiple Pain Management Options
There are multiple options available in interventional pain management treatment. Which method is used is fully dependent upon the patient’s symptoms and pending an appropriate diagnosis. Many patients find that this type of treatment is a working alternative to receiving surgery, and it allows them to have functional reduced pain or a pain-free life. Not all patients achieve the same results so it is very important that patients fully understand the procedures and all of their options.
If you have questions about the interventional pain management treatments that we offer at Coastal Healthcare Partners please call us today.
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