Pain Medicine

HEALTHPOINTE’s pain management program is grounded in teamwork and is focused on locating and ameliorating the patient’s physical sensation of pain. It is designed for moderate, difficult and severe cases in which conventional and/or conservative treatment methods have failed.

Headed by an anesthesiologist and spine surgeon, each patient's case is carefully evaluated and directed to the physician specialists who will best handle his or her needs. Our neurologists, physiatrists (rehabilitation doctors), and psychiatrists may conduct further evaluations or participate in treatment as required. Adjunctive services, such as physical therapy, chiropractic care, biofeedback, and acupuncture, may be incorporated into the treatment plan. In many cases, our team will find that altering a conservative treatment program with selective spinal blocks, facet injections, or medication changes can decrease a patient's dependency on narcotic medication and allow greater functional activity. However, if it is determined that an aggressive treatment program is needed, we can implement spinal cord stimulation (SCS) or intraspinal drug delivery (IDD), which have proven beneficial in eliminating intractable pain.

Chronic Back Pain

Over the last several years, the number of interventional procedures available to pain medicine physicians has grown significantly, particularly for chronic back pain. HEALTHPOINTE offers the following advanced techniques:

• Implantable intrathecal infusion pumps
• Spinal cord stimulators (SCS)
• Intraspinal drug delivery (IDD)
• Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS)
• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar epidural steroid injections
• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar facet blocks
• Stellate blocks
• Epidural lysis of adhesions
• Myofacial trigger point injections
• Sympathetic nerve blocks
• Selective nerve root blocks
• Radio frequency lesioning
• Discogram/discography or intradiscal injections
• Rhizotomy

The goals of our pain program are to determine the cause of pain and treat it effectively and economically; reduce disability and facilitate a return to normal activity; and decrease dependence on pain medication and the need for repetitive office visits.

Common Pain Disorders

The following are pain disorders and conditions that are referred to HEALTHPOINTE for treatment:

• Headache, neck, shoulder and back pain
• Upper and lower extremity radiculopathic pain
• Myofacial pain
• Ischemic leg pain
• Neuropathic pain from diabetes, AIDS, chemotherapy, etc.
• Post thoracotomy pain
• Post mastectomy pain
• Spinal degenerative disk disease
• Spinal stenosis
• Sciatica
• Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
• Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS)
• Incisional neuromas
• Adhesive arachnoiditis
• Peripheral causalgia/neuropathy
• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD)
• Phantom limb/stump pain
• Ischemic pain of vascular origin
• Post herpetic neuralgia
• Shingles, ophthalmic zoster
• Pancreatitis
• Cancer pain