INTERVENTIONAL PAIN MEDICINE

Interventional Pain Medicine

What is Interventional Pain Medicine?

Pain resolution for chronic pain sufferers can be a difficult and daunting task. For many patients, finding a practitioner who understands their needs can be very frustrating.  Many have been shuffled between emergency room physicians, primary care physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors and other specialists. Interventional Pain Medicine provides an avenue for patients who have not responded to other treatment methods.

Interventional Pain Medicine is a medical sub-specialty that uses injections and minimally invasive techniques in order to diagnose and treat painful conditions.

The goals are to focus on pain management and to improve the patient’s quality of life by using minimally invasive techniques to diagnose and treat the patient. For the patient’s benefit, the emphasis is on a minimal reliance on medication, whenever possible.

This method involves:

• A team of professionals working together
• Providing a multidisciplinary approach to patients suffering from chronic and/or acute pain
• Proving the best result possible for their pain management.

Interventional Pain Medicine Specialists

Looking for the Missing Pieces

to Help with the

Management of Your Pain.

What brought Interventional Pain Medicine about?

Surgery is not only irreversible, but it has a high potential for failure. Therefore, both physicians and patients have long sought out less invasive and risky alternatives to help achieve pain relief.

Interventional Pain Medicine is considered to date back to 1901, when the first epidural was performed to treat sciatic pain. Today, there are numerous minimally invasive outpatient procedures that may effectively manage your pain. These were made possible by technological advancements in imaging techniques and pain treatment systems.

Advances in diagnostic Interventional Pain Medicine techniques permit physicians to pinpoint the source of pain, which optimizes the potential for a positive outcome in 85% of the patients we treat. This specificity permits a more focused treatment plan for those patients.

Fluoroscopically Guided Spinal and Joint Injections

Spinal Pain

Treatment of back pain, which includes the neck, mid and lower back region and pelvis, involves a comprehensive evaluation to help determine the best plan of care to help relieve the pain and restore function and improve quality of life. At Coastal Virginia Spine and Pain Center, we do not just want to help relieve your pain, but to provide education, postural and behavioral retraining along with hands on therapy.

Initially the course of treatment for back pain is conservative, which typically include some combination of medication, exercises, physical therapy and education, or just letting the injury heal through modification of body mechanics.

There are times when conservative efforts fail to bring adequate relief of pain and then interventional options need to be entertained. Fluoroscopically Guided Injections in and around the spine are used to help decrease the source of the pain which is resulting from mechanical or chemical irritation of the nerve, these include:

• • Epidural Steroid Injections
  • Selective Nerve Root Blocks
  • Facet Joint Injections
  • Sacroiliac Joint Injections
  • Radiofrequency Ablation/Denervation/Lesioning
  • Spinal Cord Stimulator/Dorsal Column Stimulator
  • Intra-articular Hip Injections

Joint Pain

Joint pain affects everyone at some point in their lives. The reasons vary whether it be from an acute sports injury or an old one, or it may just be the results of the natural aging process. Regardless of the cause, joint pains hurt, and they impact our day-to-day functions at times.

At Coastal Virginia Spine and Pain Center, our clinicians will identify the cause through careful examination, and if necessary, advanced diagnostics. We will educate you on your options towards pain relief, and work with you to form an individualized treatment plan to get you feeling better and more functional.

Treatments widely vary, and while we hope all our patients achieve pain relief with the most conservative measures, some cases require interventional care to obtain optimal improvement.

Our providers perform joint injections under Musculoskeletal guidance in order to improve our patient's outcomes.

We also provide Viscosupplementation injections to the knee secondary to Osteoarthritis.  This uses Hyaluronic Acid, which is naturally found in the joint synovial fluid, and injecting this into the knee can help with increasing the lubrication of the joint and decrease pain.

Musculoskeletal Ultrasound

The use of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound-Guided Injections (MSKUS) have improved the accuracy of joint, bursa, and tendon injections all the while improving patient comfort levels during the procedure.

Peripheral Joint Injections

• Shoulder Pain related to - Osteoarthritis, Bursitis and Tendonitis
• Ribs
• Elbow - (Tennis Elbow, Golfer's Elbow)
• Wrist (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome)
• Hip Pain related to - Osteoarthritis, Bursitis and Tendonitis
• Knee Pain - Related to Osteoarthritis, Bursitis, Tendonitis
• Ankle
• Plantar Fasciitis
• Read More...

Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative Medicine, (commonly referred to as "Biologic Healing" and "Stem Cell Therapy") describes a process by which an intervention is performed in order to initiate regeneration of injured or damaged sites within the body. This cutting-edge treatment has been shown to improve both pain and function in many painful conditions such as osteoarthritis, tendonitis, partial tendon tears and ligament injuries.
Our provider team at Coastal Virginia Spine and Pain Center will assess the cause of your pain, and then decide which Regenerative Treatment method would be best to heal your condition. We currently offer:

• Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)
• Prolotherapy (Proliferative Therapy)
• Stem Cell Therapy

Common pain conditions patients can benefit from Regenerative Injection Therapy:

• Golfer's and Tennis Elbow
• Rotator Cuff Conditions
• Plantar Fasciitis
• Osteoarthritis - Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist, Hip, Knee, Ankle
• Bursitis - Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist, Hip, Knee, Ankle

Trigger Point Injections

Myofascial Pain Syndrome results from Trigger Points occur from trauma, such as a whiplash injury or microtrauma that can result from improper posture, muscle imbalances, overuse or working at a computer. The pain or referral patterns of the trigger points help us to determine which muscles are the primary problem which are impacting other areas.

Trigger Points can be treated with physical therapy, including dry needling, as well as trigger point injections. The injections involve injecting a numbing agent to make the muscle immediately relax and relieve pain. Trigger Point Injections are relatively safe and can even be performed during pregnancy.

Physical Therapy

Our physical therapists are specialists in the evaluation and treatment of movement and postural dysfunction. They are interested in preventing the onset and/or slowing the progression of conditions resulting from injury, disease, and other causes.

To provide the best care for our patients, our therapists rely on their training, continuing education and years of experience to use a combination of techniques, and innovative approaches, in order to restore function and quality of life for our patients. Everry patient is evaluated and treated specifically for their needs... not typical protocols to "treat the masses".

Patients are evaluated and treated by the same therapist for the duration of their care. In addition to treatment, education and learning long-term management skills are key elements in helping our patients achieve THEIR GOALS.

Treatment that we provide through Coastal Virginia Spine and Pain center include... Read more

Electromyography and Nerve Conduction Study

An Electromyography (EMG) is done to find diseases that damage muscle tissue and nerves or the function between nerve and muscle by measuring electrical activity in muscles. An EMG measures the electrical activity in muscles. It can help to differentiate problems in a muscle, nerves supplying a muscle, the spinal cord or the brain, which can cause paralysis, weakness or muscle twitching.

Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) are performed to find damage or injury to the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system includes all nerves that lead away from the brain and spinal cord and the smaller nerves that branch out from those nerves. NCS are used to help in the diagnosis of such conditions as nerve entrapments, plexopathy, peripheral neuropathy and radiculopathy.

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