Pain management is a comprehensive approach to diagnosing, treating and controlling pain. It uses a multi-pronged and individualized treatment plan to coordinate safe and effective options that can address the physical, emotional, social, and psychological aspects of pain. In a balanced approach to pain management, people with pain, along with their family members and caregivers, learn to manage the pain in safe, effective, responsible and healthy ways to improve or maintain their overall well-being.

People develop pain for many reasons. Pain from a recent surgery, injury or medical illness is called acute pain. In many cases, this pain can be managed immediately and will usually get better in just a short time. For more serious pain, however, your primary care doctor may ask a pain management doctor to help manage your pain while you are healing.

At the Center for Pain Management, we utilize interventional approaches (injections) when appropriate to diagnose and treat painful conditions. For a full list of the conditions we treat, please visit our Conditions We Treat section. Diagnostic injections require precise placement of specific pain medications at the structures that are suspected to cause pain. These procedures require specialized techniques and imaging equipment to assure pinpoint accuracy and safety, and are performed in state-of-the-art, sterile fluoroscopy suites to provide appropriate safeguards. In addition, we provide surgical interventions if appropriate and indicated such as spinal cord stimulators, percutaneous disc decompression, vertebral augmentation/kyphoplasty, and intrathecal pump therapy. Our balanced approach also includes the use of medications, physical therapy, and self-management techniques with the goal of improving your function and quality of life as well as reducing your pain. Sometimes we may enlist the help of a pain psychologist to better assist with the psychological impacts of being in chronic pain.

There are always some risks associated with any invasive procedure. The most concerning complications associated with these procedures are related to bleeding or infection. Uncontrolled bleeding or infection within the spine can cause permanent paralysis if not quickly diagnosed or treated. The chances of these risks occurring are extremely rare and occur so infrequently that the percentage is difficult to qualify, possibly greater than 1:150,000.

Some procedures may require sedation that prevents you from safely eating or drinking. Also, some procedures may inhibit movement in parts of your body that would make it difficult or unsafe for you to drive. Since we cannot be sure how the treatment will affect you, we require you to follow instructions that are provided to you prior to your scheduled procedure.