Pain Treatment & Management Procedures
These quick and relatively painless procedures require only local anesthesia, but intravenous sedation is available for most of the procedures in order to alleviate anxiety and minor discomfort associated with the procedure. You will receive detailed pre and post procedure instructions and our friendly staff is always there to answer any additional questions you may have.
Although drug dependency is a common worry, we only use non-habit forming treatments and drug recommendations. Please feel free to consult our pain specialists or your primary care physician if medication dependence is a concern of yours.
Pain Management:
Spine:
Dr. Shwartzman and all of his staff were very pleasant and informative on all treatments received."
IV regional anesthesia
IV regional anesthesia focuses on providing numbness to part of the extremity in which the painful condition persists. Intravenous medications may be administered to make the patient feel sleepy or more relaxed. Local anesthetic, which causes the numbness, is allowed to remain in the affected area for 20-30 minutes. Throughout the procedure, the pulse and other vital signs are closely monitored until the effect of the local anesthetic wears off. When repeated several times, this procedure often results in a lasting improvement in the level of pain.
Cryoneurolysis
This procedure is another option of providing prolonged pain relief freezing the internal structure of the nerve, thus reducing the chance for the nerve to grow back in order to restructure itself and cause pain. Typical conditions include intercostal neuralgia (rib, or chest wall); occipital neuralgia (back of head and upper neck); and Morton’s Neuroma (feet). A repeat procedure may be necessary after 6 to twelve months.
Botox Injections
Botox injections are used to treat headaches and torticollis, not just wrinkles!
Percutaneous Disc Decompression
Similar to Intradiscal Electrothermal Therapy, Percutaneous Disc Decompression uses a Decompression Catheter to apply therapeutic heat to a herniated disc, but this procedure targets the actual herniation itself rather than the center of the affected disc. This treatment is generally offered when the patient has failed to respond to more conservative treatments such as epidural steroid injections, physical therapy, medication and rest.
Sacro-iliac Joint Radiofrequency Neurotomy
The sacroiliac joints, located in the lower back and pelvic area, connect the sacrum, the large triangular bone at the base of the spine, to the large pelvic bone. Dysfunction of this joint may result in chronic pain, because the sensory nerve fibers in this region transmit pain signals throughout the body. Cooled radiofrequency neurotomy is a medical breakthrough that allows pain specialists to specifically target these nerve fibers by guiding radiofrequency heat at a precise target temperature through a thin probe to eliminate the transmission of pain through the body. This 45 minute procedure is minimally invasive and is designed to greatey reduce pain or eliminate it.
Trigeminal Nerve Blocks
Nerve blocks are injections of a local anesthetic near the nerve. They are usually administered to a pain triggering nerve, which are typical in trigeminal neuralgia. This treatment is most successful when injections are repeated several times over weeks or months, because the pain may be relieved for much longer. Given that nerve blocks don't scar or otherwise damage the nerve, they can be repeated as necessary.
Electrical Stimulation
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a not painful and doesnt require needles. This common method uses a battery-operated device to stimulate nerve fibers and in some cases, acupuncture points, to reduce pain.
Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS)
If you have been living with chronic pain, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) may provide new hope. Spinal cord stimulation has been identified to be an effective treatment option for many chronic pain sufferers.
Spinal cord stimulation is a medical therapy for people who suffer from certain types of chronic pain. SCS uses a small implanted device to generate tiny electrical pulses that replace the feeling of pain with a tingling or massaging sensation.
Spinal cord stimulation is a widely accepted medical treatment. It is an FDA-approved therapy for treatment of chronic pain of the trunk and limbs (back, legs and arms). Many major health insurance plans, Medicare and worker's compensation programs provide benefits and coverage for SCS therapy.
Each year as many as 50,000 neurostimulators are implanted worldwide.
A study of chronic pain sufferers who used ANS neurostimulators revealed the following:
- 84% reported that their quality of life was improved or greatly improved
- 77% had good or excellent pain relief
- 82% decreased their use of pain medications
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Spinal cord stimulation has three significant advantages:
- It can be very effective in relieving certain types of pain in the back, legs and arms.
- You can try SCS before you have a permanent system placed in your body, so you'll know if the therapy will work for you.
- The system can be turned off permanently or removed if you don't get the level of relief you desire.