Interventional Pain Management

Treatment options

Chronic pain that arises from known mechanical issues (degenerative conditions such as osteoarthritis or structural changes in the body, such as a herniated disc) can often be targeted with various treatments. If physical therapy or other treatments have not worked and pain is affecting quality of life, an array of interventional pain management methods may be appropriate, including:

• injections of corticosteroids for joint and musculoskeletal pain or epidural steroid injections for back pain
• infusions of pain medications
• radiofrequency ablation
• spinal cord stimulation

However, the difference between types of pain is not always clear.

Chronic pain that has no clear origin can be caused by various musculoskeletal, neurological or rheumatic inflammatory disorders. In most of these cases, pain reduction is best achieved through a multidisciplinary approach in which both pain and the underlying condition causing it are treated. This may include any or all of the following:

• physical therapy
• pain psychology or pain coping and distraction techniques
• non-opioid pain medications
• medications to treat underlying conditions
• interventional pain relieving procedures, including acupuncture

Interventional pain management at HSS

Patients travel from around the world to seek care at HSS. Our physicians specialize in the evaluation and management of numerous pain conditions whether neurologic, musculoskeletal, or orthopedic in nature. The Pain Management Service at Hospital for Special Surgery consists of highly skilled interventional pain management physicians with a variety of backgrounds including anesthesiology, neurology, and pain medicine.

Every pain management physician at HSS completes four years of medical school, four years of residency training in pain management, followed by one year of additional subspecialty training emphasizing pain medicine in addition to relevant fields including rehabilitation, psychiatry, and radiology. Pain management physicians treat the symptoms of the disease, which may include fatigue, loss of appetite and sleeping difficulties, to improve quality of life for each individual. Many of these symptoms are seen not only as a result of chronic pain but may also secondarily result from some of the medications used to treat chronic pain.

Learn more about interventional pain management at HSS below.