Pain Management

Department of Pain Medicine incorporating interventional anaesthesiology, PM&R, Psychiatry and Palliative medicine, provides the most comprehensive pain management with a wide scope of musculoskeletal pain, joint pain, back pain, neurogenic pain, psycho somatic pain, vascular and ischemic pain, viral infection pain, pelvic floor pain, Dyspareunia, cancer pain, headache, maxillofacial pain providing medical management, interventional management like injections, nerve blocks, Intrathecal pumps, Radiofrequency ablations, spinal cord stimulators, peripheral field stimulators and supported by Multi-disciplinary team of physical therapists, occupational therapists, orthotists, clinical psychologists and pain specialist nurses.

Alternate therapies provided like psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, dry needling, electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, infra-red, hot and cold therapies, wax therapies, cryo therapies, Laser, Tecar therapies and high-end  interventions like Hyperbaric Oxygen therapies.

Let us understand Pain Management and how it is practiced.

What is Pain?

Pain is your body’s way of signaling that it needs your attention. It is the primary response from the nervous system, and it can be mild pain, a sensation of discomfort, or a significant degree of discomfort to acute and intolerable pain levels. It can be temporary, recurring, or constant in one specific body area or several places. But pain is essential to discovering a problem in the body; it is a precautionary measure that alerts you to act and forces you to seek diagnosis and treatment.

What is Pain Management?

As the term suggests, pain management is a program designed to manage pain. Pain is specific to patients, from short-lived bursts to moderate intensity to chronic discomfort. Studying its physical, physiological, and emotional aspects is critical to understanding its complexity and devising a management plan.

The core of pain management is to understand why and how it affects the body and how the brain interprets it because pain is brain centered. Every sensation of pain comes from the brain.

Pain management specialists use several approaches to control, manage and relieve pain because, in chronic cases, it cannot be cured entirely.

What are the Types of Pain?

When you experience pain, your nerves, spinal cord, and brain communicate. Every type of pain has a cause, degree, and experience, which differs from person to person.

Doctors categorize pain into five types:

• Acute Pain: It is a short-term, temporary pain caused by a specific episode to the body, for example, by injury, a mild burn, or an illness. It may be intense, but it does not last long. Once the wound heals or the condition is cured, the pain resolves.

• Chronic Pain: Chronic pain is like a disease because it is ongoing. It continues despite medications and therapy and is related to a chronic health condition such as arthritis or back pain. It is caused by an illness or injury that did not fully resolve or a post-surgery development leading to a heightened sense of pain. Chronic pain can also be psychogenic or induced by a psychological state.

• Neuropathic Pain: This type of pain usually occurs when the nervous system is impaired. Damaged nerves relay wrong signals, evoking a sensation of pain. Several conditions cause neuropathic pain. Examples include uncontrolled diabetes, chronic alcoholism, disorders of the CNS (Central Nervous System), cancer treatments, and injuries that damage nerves.

• Nociceptive Pain: results from severe damage to the body tissue, such as a sports injury or an accident. Nociceptors are specialized nerve cells that detect threats to the body, such as extreme heat or cold, pressure, pinching, and chemicals. These warning signals are passed to the brain, triggering the sensation of pain. Nociceptive pain can be acute or chronic.

• Radicular Pain: occurs when a nerve root gets compressed in any part of the body, leading to pain, tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness. Sciatica is an example of radicular pain. A nerve can get compressed due to repetitive movements over a prolonged period, such as always resting one’s elbows on a table. The external force on the nerve reduces blood supply, leading to nerve damage and pain.

What are Pain Management methods?

There are several methods pain management specialists use to manage a patient’s pain, but the first step is to determine its cause. Once the root cause is diagnosed, it will choose the path of management that considers the type of pain, its severity, the patient’s age, and their medical and psychological profile.

• Medications: Prescribed for mild and chronic pain conditions.
• Injections: There are several pain-relieving injections, such as epidural steroid injections, nerve blocks, muscle relaxing injections, joint pain-reducing injections, lumbar nerve injections, etc.
• Stimulation Interventions: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a procedure to relieve nerve pain. It is a device that sends tiny electrical impulses to the affected area, which reduces the intensity of the pain signals to the brain.
• Counseling and Psychological Therapies: to achieve a mind shift in perceiving pain.
• Exercise.
• Physiotherapy.

What Are the Common Pain Management Conditions?

• Arthritis and muscle and joint injuries.
• Autoimmune disorders.
• Back pain.
• Chronic pain disorders.
• Neuralgia-related conditions.
• Headaches.
• Nerve damage.
• PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorders.
• Post-surgery pain.
• Central Nervous System disorders-related pain.

When to Seek Pain Management?

If you or someone you know is experiencing persistent pain, hampering the ability to function normally, affecting the quality of life, and causing anxiety and stress, in that case, it is time to see a pain management specialist.