Interventional pain procedures are an essential part of the management of many kinds of spine and pain conditions. Even though pain procedures, as a general rule, do not cure the problem, they can provide excellent pain relief. Furthermore, pain procedures can also provide valuable diagnostic information, as the response to an injection or other procedure can help confirm that a particular pathology is the primary pain generator.
Interventional pain procedures are minimally invasive medical techniques designed to treat chronic pain conditions. These procedures aim to alleviate pain by targeting the nerves responsible for transmitting pain signals to the brain. There are a variety of tools in the interventional toolkit including nerve blocks, trigger point injections, epidurals, ablations, or nerve stimulation among others.
Some patients are not really candidates for interventional pain management because they have a problem that pain management cannot or is unlikely to help. These patients frequently need surgery. Then there are some patients that are not candidates for surgery for whatever reason and pain management is a better option. However, most patients are in a gray area where we think surgery would help, but it is not an urgent problem and other less invasive options are reasonable to try first. I would not have surgery myself unless I had a serious pain that I was confident other less drastic treatments would not help. For those patients interventional pain management might be a good option.
Here is a survey of some of the more common procedures you might be recommended if you are referred to a pain specialist:
Trigger point injections attempt to control pain by directly injecting medication into a painful spot to reduce pain and inflammation.
Nerve blocks involve injecting a local anesthetic or other medication into the area around a specific nerve. This can be done for diagnostic purposes, to help identify the source of the pain, or for therapeutic purposes, to provide pain relief.
Epidural steroid injections involve injecting a steroid medication into the space around the nerves in the spinal canal. This can help reduce inflammation and provide pain relief in conditions such as herniated discs and spinal stenosis.
Nerve ablations, also known as neurolysis, involve using heat, cold, or chemicals to damage the nerves that are causing pain. This can provide long-lasting pain relief in conditions such as chronic low back pain and neck pain.
Peripheral nerve stimulation involves placing electrodes near the nerves responsible for the pain and delivering electrical impulses to disrupt pain signals from the nerve. This can provide significant pain relief in conditions such as neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome.
Spinal cord stimulation involves placing electrodes in the epidural space near the spinal cord and delivering electrical impulses that interfere with pain signals in the spinal cord itself. This can be an effective treatment option for chronic pain conditions that have not responded to other treatments.
If you are experiencing chronic pain, your healthcare provider may recommend one or more interventional pain procedures as part of your treatment plan. These procedures can help improve your quality of life by reducing pain and increasing your ability to participate in daily activities.