Pain Management Q & A
Why is pain management such a challenge?
Chronic pain is a complex problem that’s seldom relieved by conventional medical options. After several months of ongoing pain, it gets worse. Chronic pain changes your central nervous system, making your nerves and brain hypersensitive to pain.
This condition, called central sensitization, affects the way you perceive painful sensations. When that happens, you begin to feel severe pain from the slightest bump or gentlest touch.
The physicians at HB Surgical Arts can help by thoroughly evaluating your medical history and developing an individualized treatment plan for managing your pain.
How is chronic pain managed?
Pain management draws from different medical specialties, including non-opioid medications, minimally invasive surgery, and interventional procedures to eliminate the source of your pain.
Interventional procedures include treatments such as epidural steroid injections, nerve root blocks, and spinal cord stimulation. These methods, and other interventional options, are administered directly to the nerves responsible for sending pain signals to your brain, where they block the signals so you won’t feel the pain.
How is opioid addiction managed while treating pain?
Opioid medications are commonly prescribed to relieve pain after surgery and for patients with disabling chronic pain. Unfortunately, opioids are highly addictive, and they put you at risk for an overdose as you take more medicine to obtain pain relief.
The doctors at HB Surgical Arts offer supervised addiction treatment with Suboxone R, a medication that diminishes withdrawal, controls cravings, and blocks the effect of opioids. While you’re on a Suboxone program, the team explores non-opioid pain treatment options that eliminate your need for opioids.
Is pain management effective for different sources of pain?
Pain can arise from underlying health problems, surgery, metabolic conditions, nerve damage, and trauma. Although this list of conditions treated at HB Surgical Arts is long, it’s not nearly a comprehensive representation of conditions that cause chronic pain:
Musculoskeletal pain:
- Leg pain
- Osteoporosis
- Osteomalacia
- Sciatica
- Scoliosis
- Spondylosis
- Disc herniation
- Spinal stenosis
- Sacroiliac joint dysfunction
- Myofascial pain syndrome
- Sports injuries
- Work-related injuries
- Back and neck pain
- Failed back surgery syndrome
- Whiplash injury (often from motor vehicle accidents)
Neuropathic pain:
- Diabetic nerve pain
- Peripheral neuralgia
- Nerve compression
- Phantom limb pain
- Post-stroke pain
- Complex regional pain syndrome (reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or RSD)
Arthritis and rheumatologic pain:
- Osteoarthritis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
Headache pain:
- Migraine
- Post-trauma headache
- Postural puncture headache
Other sources of pain:
- Vascular (ischemic) pain
- Cancer pain
Don’t let chronic pain continue to interfere with your sleep or lose time with family and friends. Call HB Surgical Arts or schedule an appointment online to receive individualized pain management.
