Pain Management

What is the Pain Management Center?

The Pain Management Center is an outpatient facility that provides expertise in treating and diagnosing pain problems. The physicians staffing the Pain Management Center provide more than twenty-five years of knowledge, expertise and treatment skills in dealing with a broad spectrum of pain syndromes.

Patients are accepted into our program by direct referral(s) from within the medical community, such as primary care physicians, orthopedists, neurosurgeons, chiropractors, etc, or as patients not presently under the care of a physician. An appropriate treatment plan is devised that will best benefit the particular pain problem. If further workup as to the cause of the problem is needed, it will be arranged on an outpatient basis.

What kinds of pain are treated?
We treat the following types of pain in conjunction with your physician. As with most health problems, the earlier the treatment, the better the chance of relieving the pain.

• Low back and leg pain (lumbago and sciatica) due to the herniated disc or spinal stenosis
• Neck and arm pain
• Muscle (myofascial) pain
• Neuralgia or pain following a nerve injury
• Pain resulting from shingles
• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy or causalgia
• Pain from cancer
• Pain following amputation
• Pain from a spinal cord injury
• Pain due to poor blood circulation
• Body wall pain
• Surgical incision pain

Methods of pain relief

• Selective Nerve Blocks
  Interruption of pain pathways.
• Epidural steroid Injections
  To reduce swelling around nerves.
• Trigger Point Injections
  To relieve pain in specific areas.

It is a common practice to combine the above procedures with referrals for the following:

• Physician therapy and an exercise program
• Social service and occupational therapy

The day of your appointment
You may not eat or drink for 4 hours before your appointment. While the usual length of stay at the Pain Unit is about 2 hours, it is difficult to make an exact prediction in every instance. However, you will be given the best estimate possible at the time of admission.

If you are taking medication for other problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure or heart problems, please take your medication on your usual schedule with a sip of water before your appointment.

If you are taking anticoagulants (blood thinners), notify our office as soon as possible.

Do not take any anti-inflammatory drugs or drugs containing aspirin or ibuprofen for 3-7 days before each procedure. You may take Tylenol. If you are unsure of which medications to take, please call our center for verification.

Fees and Insurance
Your insurance company will be billed after completion of a single procedure or after completion of a series of procedures.

The Pain Management Center office personnel can discuss your insurance coverage with you and we welcome your questions in these matters to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding.

Appointments
After your referral to the Pain Management Center, our office personnel will try to schedule your appointment at the earliest, most convenient time for you. If you are unable to keep your appointment, we would appreciate 24 hours notification.

If you are referred by your physician, that physician will be kept informed of your progress and treatment at the Pain Management Center.