Those suffering from chronic pain often face great challenges in finding the most suitable way to relieve it. This is often a long-term process – from searching for information, selecting the most suitable one to choosing a specialist. Clinic AGATAS patient Rasa says that „chronic pain is not simple. It is very complicated. It is a lot of different pains in different areas at different times, each of which requires different treatment. In order to understand my condition, I devoted many hours to searching for information and specialists. And every day in pain is a fight with myself. For those who have not encountered chronic pain, it is difficult to understand”.
Frequently, chronic pain patients wander the halls of hospitals and clinics, consulting various specialists, therapists, and physical therapists, but often return to their family doctor without positive treatment results. The problem often lies in the fact that each specialist provides their treatment, but there is no comprehensive treatment plan involving various methods.
What Makes Interventional Pain Treatment Unique?
Interventional pain management is a medical discipline that involves the diagnosis and treatment of pain-related disorders. It uses a multidisciplinary approach to the patient and the disease. This means that a team of various health professionals works to provide a full range of treatments and health services to patients suffering from acute or chronic pain.
The goals of interventional pain management are to relieve or reduce pain and improve the patient's quality of life, helping to avoid daily use of various pain-relieving medications.
One unique feature of this treatment is that it uses methods like injections to more effectively reach the source of the pain. These methods are typically used to treat:
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Interventional pain management options for back pain are extremely broad and often very effective. After a thorough clinical evaluation, pain specialists may prescribe epidural steroid injections, nerve root blocks, facet joint injections, or trigger point injections.
It is essential to emphasize that physical therapy, occupational therapy, lifestyle changes (exercise, dietary adjustments, quitting smoking) are crucial parts of the pain management process. Together with interventional pain management techniques, they create a comprehensive and effective treatment plan.
What to Expect During the Pain Treatment Process?
During the initial visit, the pain specialist thoroughly evaluates the patient’s medical history, test results, and conducts a physical examination, touching painful areas and asking various questions about the pain’s nature, intensity, and spread to other body areas. It is recommended that the patient brings MRI results to the first visit, as MRI provides more precise results compared to other radiological examinations like X-rays or CT scans. This allows the doctor to quickly prescribe the most appropriate treatment.
It is crucial that the patient provides comprehensive information about previous treatments, medications used, and any alternative treatments like acupuncture, massages, or herbal remedies.
All this information helps to create a complete, individualized pain management plan and to schedule procedures. It’s also important to note the conditions under which procedures are performed. Interventional pain management procedures conducted under X-ray or ultrasound guidance yield the best results, as technology ensures precision. Besides these procedures, the pain specialist often includes a consultation with a physical therapist and may recommend consulting a nutritionist. The nutritionist can create a diet plan with minimal inflammatory foods and may help in weight management, as excess weight is also a common cause of chronic pain.
Interventional pain treatment – teamwork
The patient should also be an active participant in the treatment process. Chronic pain management is often a complex and lengthy process that requires significant willpower from the patient to attend physical therapy and follow the pain specialist’s recommendations. Often, a single interventional pain procedure is not enough for good health to return. Patience and careful adherence to doctor’s instructions are essential for achieving successful treatment results.
Rasa, who has been battling chronic pain for over three years, notes, “Throughout all this time, I’ve learned one thing—there is no single solution for chronic pain treatment that works for everyone. What suits one person may not work at all for another. It often requires relying on different combinations of treatments—medications, exercise, injections, psychotherapy, and more. In the entire process, my own determination to recover and trust in the team of doctors working with me are equally important.”