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‘Pain Management Has Made A Paradigm Shift From Surgery To Interventional Procedures’
EHM News Bureau - Mumbai
While most patients suffering from chronic pain a few years
back were recommended for surgery when medications failed, now pain management
specialists are advising interventional procedures. Some of the common interventional
procedures are nerve blocking, radio frequency, adhesiolysis and intrathetical
pump implantation.
This emerging trend was highlighted on the occasion of inauguration of the state-of-the-art
pain management clinic at S L Raheja Hospital. Dr Patrick McGowan, the founder
of the World Institute of Pain inaugurated the clinic. A workshop was also organised,
where pain management specialists deliberated on the recent interventional pain
management techniques.
As high as 15 per cent of general active population suffers from chronic back
pain. According to Dr Patrick, “Chronic pain leads to loss of day of work,
and thus economic loss.” Pain can be a disease or can be caused by a disease.
Any pain which refuses to go away after medications for three to four months,
needs intervention from pain specialists. The commonest form of pain is back
pain.
Interventional procedure scores over both medicine and surgery. Said Dr Preeti
Doshi, pain management specialist, Jaslok Hospital, “Interventional procedures
do not have side effects like medicine.” Surgeries is not preferred as
the success rate of surgery is only around 50 per cent. The advantages of interventional
procedures are multifold. Said Dr Kailash Kothari, Swastik Hospital, “It
produces immediate pain relief, can be performed with ease and with minimum
equipment, adequate duration of pain relief obtained, minimum or no hospitalisation
is required and procedure can be repeated.” “A pain management clinic
should ideally have interventional pain expert neurosurgeons, anaesthesiologists,
rehabilitation therapists, dietician, counsellors and orthopaedicians, said
Dr Laxmi Vas, pain management specialist, Ashirwad Pain Relief Clinic.
According to S M Upadhya, pain management specialist, Raheja Hospital, “The
four steps of pain management is evaluation of the patient, finding the cause
through diagnostic tests like CT and MRI, locating the site of pain and treatment.”
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