Wickenburg Community Hospital (WCH) offers an interventional pain management program that helps patients living with chronic and acute pain. Our treatments include a variety of bone and joint injections, as well as, fracture management techniques to provide relief from pain. These treatments are minimally invasive and are performed by Board Certified Physicians in Interventional Radiology. Our treatment methods avoid the temporary relief of addictive opioids, allowing patients to continue their daily functioning routines.
What is Interventional Pain Management?
According to the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), interventional pain management is a “discipline of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of pain related disorders.” Interventional pain medicine utilizes a multidisciplinary approach, in which a team of health care professionals works together, to provide a full range of treatments and services for patients suffering from chronic and/or acute pain.
The goals of interventional pain management are to relieve, reduce, or manage pain and improve a patient’s overall quality of life through minimally invasive techniques specifically designed to diagnose and treat painful conditions. Interventional pain management also strives to help patients return to their everyday activities quickly and without heavy reliance on medications.
Treating Pain with Interventional Pain Management
Examples of our treatments include Computed Tomography (CT) guided nerve root blocks and transforaminal epidural steroid injections which have excellent therapeutic benefits and help prevent the majority of patients from needing a surgery. Both have excellent therapeutic benefits and help prevent the majority of patients from needing a surgery.
The spine is made up of bones called vertebrae. Between each vertebra is a ‘disc’ that allows the spine to be flexible. In between adjacent vertebrae, there is an opening on each side called ‘foramen’, through which a nerve exits on its way to other parts of the body.
Back and/or leg pain can come from compression of the nerve as it passes through the foramen. Compression can come from a damaged, bulging disc, or from extra bone that grows as a response to arthritis in the joints between the vertebrae.
The nerve is surrounded by a ‘sleeve’. CT guided injection of ‘steroid’ medication into the ‘sleeve’ surrounding the nerve root decreases inflammation in the nerve root and will often reduce pain caused by nerve root inflammation.
For More Information
Call Wickenburg Community Hospital at 928-684-5421 and ask for Peter Stachowicz, or e-mail him with your contact information and questions.