Treatment Options

Your pain is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to treat it. This is why you always receive a personalized plan to determine the best pain management procedure to address your individual pain.

Non-surgical pain management procedures mean you have a faster recovery time from the wide variety of conditions we treat.

Here are just a few of the treatment options available to you at Southwest Pain Center.

Selective Epidural Injections

This procedure places anti-inflammatory medication into the spine to decrease inflammation of the nerve roots. This treatment is used for spinal stenosis, disk herniation or degenerative disk disease. An epidural injection is delivered into the epidural space of the spine to provide temporary or prolonged relief. Steroids, anesthetics and anti-inflammatory medications are typically delivered in an epidural injection. The injection may reduce pain and swelling in and around the spinal nerve roots, as well as around damaged nerves which in time may heal.

Selective Nerve Root Blocks

These blocks are used to diagnose the specific source of nerve root pain and also for relief of low back pain and/or leg pain. Selective Nerve Blocks are performed near the spine to diagnose the specific spinal nerve that is the root source of chronic back and leg pain. This procedure also can reduce inflammation around the selected nerve root, which has the effect of decreasing or relieving pain.

Facet Injections

These have a diagnostic benefit as well as therapeutic benefit. They can numb the source of pain and soothe the inflammation.

Caudal Injections or Adhesionolysis of Scar Tissue

This procedure alleviates pain by breaking up scar tissue to free entrapped nerves. Scar tissue can form around nerve roots causing constant unrelenting pain. Adhesions are typically formed due to inflammation and irritation in the epidural space. These adhesions can aggravate nearby nerve roots and the pain can be intense. Scar tissue can frequently result in irritated and inflamed nerves, which can cause pain that radiates from the low back into the legs. Most commonly, people who present with neck or back pain due to scar tissue formation have had prior surgeries or prolonged neck or back pain. After spinal surgery, adhesions develop and are thought to be the cause of recurrent pain.

Lumbar Sympathetic Blocks

Used in the treatment of reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) - is an injection of local anesthetic in the "sympathetic nerve tissue" - the nerves which are a part of Sympathetic Nervous System. The nerves are located in the back, on either side of the spine. A block is performed to determine if there is damage to the sympathetic nerve chain and if the damage is the source of pain. Primarily, this is a diagnostic test, but it may provide relief far in excess of the duration of an anesthetic.

The injection blocks the Sympathetic Nerves. This may, in turn, reduce pain, swelling, color and sweating changes in the lower extremities and may improve mobility. It is the treatment for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS), Sympathetic Maintained Pain, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and Herpes Zoster (shingles) involving the lower extremities.

Discography

A procedure used to identify the painful disk. The physician pierces the disk and injects a contrast dye. An X-ray will show if the dye enters the surrounding tissue. This procedure provokes pain in an injured disk providing your physician with information needed for diagnosis disk.

IDET (Intradiscal Electrothermal Annuloplasty)

This treatment is used for problems resulting from disks (discogenic pain). After discography is performed to pinpoint the painful disk, high heat is applied directly to the disk, therefore decreasing the pain by various mechanisms.

Nucleoplasty Percutaneous Disc Decompression

This procedure is used for herniated disks which have not responded to epidural injections. The size of the bulge in the disk is reduced, therefore relieving the pressure inside the disk and on the nerves, thus relieving the symptoms.

Trigger Point Injections/Botox Injections

These can be used to treat extremely painful areas of muscle and are used to treat myofascial pain syndrome that does not respond to medications and other treatment. Botox injections can be used to treat severe muscle spasms which are extremely painful.

Radiofrequency Neurotomy

A type of injection procedure in which a heat lesion is created on certain nerves with the goal of interrupting the pain signals to the brain, thus eliminating pain.

Spinal Cord Stimulators

Introduce low levels of electrical current to block the sensation of pain. This is used to treat failed back surgery syndrome or radiculopathy (sciatica or leg pain).

Intrathecal Pumps

Delivers pain medication directly into the intrathecal space around the spinal cord via a pump implanted during surgery. They are used primarily to treat chronic pain.