Just as it sounds, pain management is a medical subspecialty that endeavors to ease suffering and improve the quality of life of patients living with pain. This can be achieved in several ways, including osteopathic manipulation, drug therapy, technology, and physical therapy and exercise.

Interventional pain management involves the nonsurgical management of injuries and disorders and the pain associated with them. Interventional Pain Management providers are nerve, muscle, bone, and brain experts who diagnose and treat injuries or illnesses that affect how you move. This approach to patient care looks at the whole person and not just one symptom or condition.

Conditions That May Benefit From IPM

Treatment for any pain condition is recommended as soon as possible to minimize the danger of further aggravation. The following is a list of some conditions that may cause pain that can be mitigated by IPM:

Radiculopathy—An irritated nerve, also called sciatica, often from a herniated (slipped) disk in the back. This can cause a shooting pain down the arm or leg that's often described as an electrical feeling.
Myofascial Pain—Generally an aching pain in muscles that tends to come from poor posture, sitting at a computer, or other job-related tasks. With myofascial back pain, the patient can become sore in different parts of the body such as the back and legs. Often patients report that they have difficulty sleeping or feel restored from sleep.
Spinal Stenosis—A narrowing of the nerve passageways either around the spinal cord or nerve roots that can cause symptoms similar to a pinched nerve. It can cause leg pain in anyone, but most often does so in older people. Patients with spinal stenosis can have trouble walking, and the difficulty is usually relieved by sitting down or bending forward. It can cause aching or heaviness in the neck and arms or back and legs.
Tendon, Ligament and Soft Tissue Pain—Localized pain when an area is stretched or its muscles are overused. This results in tenderness as well as shooting pain/tingling.
Non-Spinal Causes of Lower Back Pain—Our organs can refer pain to the musculoskeletal system, which may imitate amusculoskeletal injury. Conditions include: appendicitis, kidney disease, uterine disorders, and urinary tract infections, among many others.

I perform many types of interventional pain management, including:

Lumbar epidural steroid injections (ESI’s)—both transforaminal and interlaminar
Lumbar facet injections, medial branch blocks, and rhizotomies
Sacroiliac joint injections
Intraarticular injections (including hip, knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, wrist)
Carpal tunnel nerve injections
Piriformis muscle injections
Trigger point injections (TPI) and dry needling