INTRODUCTION
Pain medicine is a super-speciality area that has gone along way in making improving the quality of life by abolishing pain . 25-30% of population in India is suffering from chronic pain (Back Pain, migraine, arthritis, neuropathic pain, Cancer pain etc). Unawareness among patients and doctors about various pain management options is a big hurdle. Most patients either are prescribed medications or are given options to undergo surgery for the chronic pain problems but interventional pain management options are rarely sought.
Pain physicians are well versed in medical as well as interventional means to manage your pains by identifying the pain generators. Low back pain(LBP) is the most common cause of job-related disability. Low back pain is a symptom, not a disease itself. Myofascial LBP, Lumbar disc LBP, Facetogenic pain, SI joint pain, Lumbar canal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, vertebral fractures are the most common causes of LBP seen in day to day practice. A herniated disc is a common cause of LBP that can radiate to the legs in young age group. Lots of minimally invasive procedures exists to takes care of these problem preventing surgery and even avoid long term pain medication & their side effects. Selective nerve root blocks ( SNRB), Ozone chemonucleolysis, laser discectomy help to reduce the disc volume and intradiscal pressure. We believe that nearly 90% of surgeries can be avoided by using interventional pain management techniques. Our practice of pain management is changing. We are clinicians expert in identifying the cause of any pain/ pain generator and managing patient by medical or interventional means.
Our practice of pain management is changing. We are clinicians expert in identifying the cause of any pain/ pain generator and managing patient by medical or interventional means. Regenerative pain medicine is also coming up in big way in managing degenerative problems like osteoarthritis of knee/shoulder, degenerative spondylolisthesis etc. PRP, bone marrow concentrates, prolotherapy are now being utilized in managing these chronic painful conditions. Hopefully 10 years down the line we have lot of options to delay degeneration or even revert it.
CONCLUSION
Pain clinics run by specialized anesthesiologist help in managing chronic pains be it joint pains, headache, neck pains, back pains, cancer pains, other neuropathic pains like post herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, HIV neuropathy, chronic pelvic pain etc. Evolving technologies including image-guided interventional pain procedures treatment may help a substantial number of patients avoid surgery and long term medications and improve their quality of life.