Blocking Pain with Same Day Surgeries for Pain Management
Advanced Surgical Institute can assist your doctor in treating you with pain management surgeries, including:
Radio Frequency Lesioning
(Also called “RF Lesioning” or “radio frequency neurolysis”).
This procedure uses radio frequency waves to temporarily block nerve signals. It can block nerves carrying pain signals for six to 12 months and provide you with relief to facet or sacroiliac joint pain.
Epidural Steroid Injections (interlaminar and transforaminal)
These injections can temporarily block pain caused by irritated or pinched spinal nerves. A doctor will inject a steroid (usually cortisone) between the spinal cord and the vertebrae. The steroid helps reduce the nerve inflammation and eliminate your pain.
Facet Joint Injections
Facet joints are small, thumbnail-shaped joints on either side of each of your spine vertebrae. They help stabilize and guide the spine as your body moves. Doctors can use facet joint injections to diagnose and treat pain caused by problems in the neck, upper back or lower back sections of your spine. The doctor injects an anesthetic and an anti-inflammatory medication into the problem joint. The procedure can relieve your facet joint pain caused by:
- Arthritis,
- Back injury
- Repetitive motion stress
Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) Trials
Spinal Cord Stimulation is a pain management option that can relieve severe, chronic pain. This procedure uses electronic pulses to excite the nerve and “trick” your brain into believing the pain is gone or reduced. A battery-operated device generates the electronic pulses. Thin wire electrodes deliver the electronic pulses to the nerves in the spine.
Some key components to SCS treatment:
- The level of pain reduction from SCS varies by patient.
- Doctors will first test SCS effectiveness on you by inserting a temporary SCS lead through a needle during a same-day surgery.
- The SCS trial lasts about a week after the temporary lead is inserted.
If the SCS trial controls your pain, then the doctor will implant a permanent SCS device and electrode. The permanent device implant is also usually done on an outpatient basis.
Discograms
Doctors use discograms to diagnose whether a spinal disk is causing your pain. A dye is injected into one or more spinal disks. If the injection is placed in a disk causing the problem:
- You will temporarily feel the pain symptoms, and
- The dye will highlight any cracks or tears in the wall of an injured spinal disk.
An injection placed in a healthy disk will not cause pain symptoms.
