What Are My Options For Managing My Pain?

Roughly 50 million Americans live with chronic pain, and it isn’t always simple or easy to treat it. High-impact chronic pain is a more debilitating type of pain that interferes with an individual's ability to participate in employment, social activities, and daily living activities.

The team at Pain Management Specialists takes a comprehensive approach to managing pain. We first investigate what’s causing your pain. Then, we design a treatment plan to help relieve your discomfort and resolve the underlying cause. 

In this blog, we discuss a number of pain management options we offer. 

Epidural steroid injections

Epidural steroid injections are one option for difficult-to-treat, chronic low back pain. This treatment uses corticosteroid medication, which has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect, to provide rapid, short-term relief from chronic back pain.

Radiofrequency ablation

The aim of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is to disable the nerve that’s sending the continuous pain signals and causing the chronic pain. First, your provider performs an X-ray guided procedure called a medial branch block to pinpoint the problematic nerve. 

Then, you return on a separate day for the RFA procedure. After numbing the targeted area, your provider uses a tiny needle to heat the targeted nerve, which disables the nerve. Pain relief can start within a few days to a couple of weeks and can last 6-12 months.

Spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation sends mild electrical impulses to the spinal cord, which interrupts the pain signals. 

For this treatment, your provider implants a tiny device — which generates the impulses — usually in the area of the lower back. Then your provider attaches insulated wires to the device and places the ends of the wires next to the spinal cord.

Once your procedure is completed, you use a handheld device that functions like a remote control to increase or decrease the intensity of the impulses to help reduce or eliminate the pain.

Spinal cord stimulation can be used to treat individuals who are suffering from severe, chronic pain that has resulted from failed back surgery, neuropathic pain, complex regional pain syndrome, or other issues,

Intracept procedure

Pain related to damaged spinal discs is a common cause of chronic lower back pain, and now there’s a treatment specifically designed to alleviate this type of pain. The Intracept procedure is a clinically proven treatment that involves stopping the pain signals that are being transmitted from nerves that are associated with spinal discs.

To perform this procedure, you’re first given anesthesia. Then, using X-ray guidance, your provider inserts a probe next to the targeted nerve. The probe then releases radiofrequency energy, which heats the nerve and disables it.

ReActiv8

ReActiv8 is a new rehabilitative treatment that has helped many patients get relief when other therapies failed. With the ReActive8 system, a device is implanted in the lower back, and the device sends out electrical impulses that stimulate the muscles responsible for stabilizing the lower back (lumbar spine). The result is it can help relieve pain.

A patient will typically use a remote control to activate the ReActiv8 system, which then generates painless electrical impulses to the narrow muscles on either side of the spinal column called the multifidus muscle. This is usually done for 30 minutes, twice a day.

ReActiv8 therapy led to significant reductions in pain and disability, as well as a reduced need for opioid medication, according to a promising study published in 2022. The study examined the long-term outcomes of ReActiv8 therapy. 

If you have chronic pain, our team at Pain Management Specialists can find out what’s causing it and help improve your quality of life. To learn more, book an appointment online or over the phone with Pain Management Specialists today. We have offices in Rockville and Frederick, Maryland.