Pain Management Center

A herniated disc occurs when a piece of a disc is pushed outside the edge of the disc.  Sometimes this can cause pressure against or irritation of a spinal nerve root which may result in pain down the arm or leg.  When this involves pain down the leg, it is usually referred to as ‘sciatica’.

During their lives, 80 percent of Americans will experience back pain, which is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Though caused by many things, conditions most commonly leading to the problem include muscle or ligament strain caused by heavy lifting or awkward movements. Other causes include arthritis, poor posture, obesity, and stress.

Learn more about back pain here.

Acute neck pain is common, and typically is the symptom of prolonged straining, sleeping in an uncomfortable position, stress, wearing heavy necklaces, or osteoarthritis. In some cases, it can be a symptom of a more serious problem.

Learn more about neck pain here.

Joint pain can be chronic discomfort, pain or inflammation involving an part of a joint, including the bone, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, or muscles. It may be caused by strain or a condition like arthritis.

Learn more about joint pain here.

A special type of pain can originate from the nerves themselves that is usually burning, pins/needles, or electrical in nature.  This may happen due to injury to the nerve from multiple causes including, but not limited to, medical conditions (e.g. Diabetes), compression (e.g. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), and trauma (e.g. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome)

People with cancer often suffer with pain.  This pain can be caused by the tumor pressing on a nerve, bone, or other organ or by the cancer treatment (e.g. chemotherapy, radiation, surgery).

Often, people who have suffered traumas experience chronic pain. For example, people injured in automotive accidents often experience ongoing pain long after their original injuries have healed.  Also, people who suffer from post-traumatic stress, such as military veterans and individuals who have experienced physical or emotional trauma during their lives, often suffer from chronic pain.

Learn more about chronic trauma pain here.

We offer a wide variety of non-narcotic medical treatments to alleviate pain and help patients manage their discomfort.

Injections provide temporary pain relief by sending powerful medications such as steroids to the source of your pain  to relieve pain and improve function and quality of life. We often do epidural steroid injections to alleviate radicular pain (pain down an arm or leg from a spinal nerve root).

These injections can be used to help diagnose and manage pain arising from specific nerves.  Injection of medications, such as local anesthetics and steroids, directly by a nerve can provide temporary pain relief and improve function and quality of life.

This procedure uses an electrical current produced by a radio wave to heat a small area of nerve tissue to decrease pain signals from that area. This is usually performed for pain originating from joints in the spine once the source has been verified.

Our physicians use injections of a chemical like ethanol to destroy a sensitive nerve, in hopes of providing long-term pain relief.

An implanted device that electrically stimulates the spinal cord to relieve pain.  This can be used for select causes of chronic neuropathic pain (e.g. post-laminectomy pain syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome).