Interventional Pain Management Doctors in Columbus, OH

Interventional Pain Management Services in Columbus, OH

Acute Pain Management

Acute pain is generally temporary pain brought on suddenly by something specific such as an injury, surgery, or infection. Acute pain management involves a variety of methods to prevent, stop, or reduce pain. These include medications, physical therapy, and psychological methods.

Non-Surgical Spine Care

Non-surgical spine care is a series of treatments that do not involve invasive, operative procedures that care for spinal cord injury. When possible, non-surgical care is performed before consideration of spine surgery. Non-invasive measures such as physical therapy, exercise, physiatry, pain management, anti-inflammatory drugs, injections, and medicine to reduce pain are used. Early use of non-surgical spine care can speed up the healing process.

Common Questions

What Does an Interventional Pain Specialist Do?

Interventional Pain Specialists specialize in managing pain and restoring movement and function to patients who have been disabled by disease or injury. They are integral members of the care team.

They are trained to diagnose and treat various medical conditions affecting the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and musculoskeletal system. Our pain management specialists consider your unique needs, abilities, and goals before providing treatment and your rehabilitation medicine plan.

Although each rehabilitation plan will be different, there are some general treatment components that your physician will take into consideration while designing your pain management program.

They will want to:

• Treat the basic disease and prevent complications
• Treat the disability and improve muscular-skeletal function
• Provide adaptive tools and alter the environment to increase progress
• Teach the patient and family and help them adapt to lifestyle changes

Successful rehabilitation will depend on the following variables:

• The disease, disorder, or injury and its severity
• The type and degree of any resulting impairments and disabilities
• The general health of the patient
• Level of support from the family

How Do Interventional Pain Specialists Diagnose Patients?

Pain Specialists may use a variety of techniques to diagnose a patient. They may include the usual diagnostic tools that general physicians use like physical examinations, imaging tests, and medical history.

What Type of Treatments and Procedures Does an Interventional Pain Management Specialist Perform?

Pain Management Specialists perform and prescribe the following treatments:

• Therapeutic exercise: Movements and physical activities are designed to restore function and flexibility, improve strength and decrease pain.
• Orthotics: An externally applied device is used to influence the structural and functional characteristics of the neuromuscular and skeletal systems.
• Pain medications: Careful management of pain relief medications to give you the right amount of relief.
• Spasticity management: This may include botulinum toxin or phenol injections or intrathecal baclofen pumps if oral meds prove ineffective.
• Epidural steroid injection (ESI): The use of a corticosteroid injection and numbing medicines in the area around the spinal nerves. May relieve pain for up to a year, allowing you to resume normal daily activities and physical therapy.
• Facet joint injection: The use of corticosteroid injection and numbing medicines into a painful facet joint in the back or neck. It is used to relieve inflammation and pain and as a diagnostic tool to determine which joint has pain.
• Joint injections: The use of a corticosteroid injection directly into either the knee, hip, ankle, shoulder, elbow, or hand joint. It offers temporary relief of pain, allowing you to return to work and perform daily activities and physical therapy.
• Sacroiliac (SI) joint injection: The use of a corticosteroid injection in the sacroiliac joint found in the area between the lower back and buttocks. It is used to relieve pain and help identify whether the pain is originating from this joint or another area.
• Nerve block injection: While not a treatment in itself, a nerve block can help determine what nerve or joint is causing pain. A local anesthetic is injected on or near a pain receptor, and then the patient logs their pain relief over the next couple of hours. If the block was successful, then a radiofrequency ablation may be recommended.
• Radiofrequency ablation (rhizotomy): The physician uses a radiofrequency current to burn the sensory nerves surrounding a painful joint preventing pain signals from reaching the brain. Radiofrequency ablation is expected to last from 6 months up to more than 2 years after its application. This enables patients to return to work and perform normal daily activities comfortably.
• Spinal cord stimulator trial: This test is used to see whether electrical impulses will successfully override pain signals, thereby reducing pain. The physiatrist will place electrodes on the spine and administer electrical pulses to the spinal cord. If the test is successful, a device similar to a pacemaker will be surgically implanted near the spine so the electrical stimulation can continue permanently.