Chronic pain can drastically hinder your daily experience. From preventing you from being active with your family to impeding household chores, your symptoms can affect you in infinite ways. It’s only natural to try just about anything to regain your comfort and lifestyle. However, you don’t need to jump to drastic measures right away if you have the right resources at your disposal. This is what you need to know about interventional pain management as an alternative to surgery.
The Basics of Interventional Pain Management
Interventional pain management is a medical discipline that deals with diagnosing and treating painful disorders. The purpose is to address the root of your symptoms with minimally invasive practices. This way, you can take better control of your pain in daily life and return to the activities you love. With the right combination of treatments, you can drastically improve your quality of life and learn to manage your pain should a flare-up occur.
Types of Interventional Pain Management
Several treatment plans fall under the interventional pain management category, and all address an individual’s discomfort. Pain specialists will often combine these methods to meet a patient’s specific needs.
A few examples of interventional pain management include steroid injections to reduce inflammation, spinal cord stimulation, spinal fusions, and nerve blocking. These procedures seek to eliminate the source of your pain or numb areas of the body where your pain occurs. Other types of interventional pain management are infusion (which delivers medication to the pain site) and ablation (which uses radiofrequency waves to stimulate nerve tissues).
Why Surgery Is a Last Resort
The more we learn about common causes of pain in the body, the more we see interventional pain management as a surgery alternative. While surgery is crucial for many conditions, it can be invasive and lead to extended recovery times that impact a person’s life. Patients can find relief quicker and return to their daily activities much sooner with interventional methods like those listed above. Ask your specialist about non-invasive treatment options if you want to lessen your symptoms.
At Pain and Spine Specialists, we believe every patient can mitigate their pain in the least invasive way possible. The team at our Altoona pain clinic works hard to assess your unique situation and deliver the best possible treatments for your needs. Whether you’re in need of interventional pain management or another facet of pain treatment, we can get you on the path to relief.