Pain Management
Patients seek help with pain management for a variety of reasons, including back or neck pain, hip or leg pain, headaches, fibromyalgia or pain resulting from cancer. No matter the reason, Indiana University Health physicians are highly skilled at treating both acute and chronic pain. We know pain can be incredibly debilitating, so we strive to help patients manage their pain and return to a higher level of functioning.
Pain Management Treatment
Many people suffer with chronic pain because they are unaware of the treatments available to help them live more pain free lives. IU Health is dedicated to enabling people with painful conditions to live full and rewarding lives. Our highly skilled physicians work with medications, procedures, physical therapy, exercise, spinal cord stimulators, or nerve ablations to decrease pain and improve function. We work with each patient to create a comprehensive treatment plan that meets his or her needs.
Injection Therapy
IU Health offers a wide range of injection therapy options. Injection therapy can help alleviate pain in the spine, joints, and back and neck. Depending on the patient’s pain, our highly skilled physicians can provide epidural injections, steroid injections and trigger point injections.
Nerve Blocks
IU Health offers numerous types of nerve blocks that each serve a different purpose and can alleviate a wide variety of pain. A nerve block is created by injecting a local anesthesia or other pain reducing medication to a group of nerves that are causing pain. Nerve blocks can minimize pain in a specific organ or area of the body.
Sympathetic Blocks
A sympathetic block is an injection of local anesthetic in the “sympathetic nerve tissue,” the nerves that are a part of the Sympathetic Nervous System. The nerves are located in the back on either side of the spine. This block may reduce pain, swelling, color and sweating changes in the lower extremity and may also improve mobility.
Spinal Cord Stimulation
Spinal cord stimulation treats chronic neurological pain and is achieved using an implantable medical device. An electric impulse generated by the device produces a tingling sensation that alters the perception of pain. The device is implanted into a patient’s epidural space and is connected via a wire harness to a pulse generator that gets implanted in the abdomen or buttocks.
Radiofrequency Therapy
Pulsed radiofrequency ablation is used to treat chronic pain in various areas of the body and provides longer lasting pain relief. Radiofrequency therapy uses a specialized machine to interrupt nerve conduction on a semi-permanent basis. The nerves are usually blocked for six to nine months, with extreme cases being as short as three months or as long as 18 months.
Pain Management Team
IU Health physicians provide the diagnosis, treatment and care of painful conditions. Our team of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants want to educate you about the options you have to minimize your pain and maximize your function. The multidisciplinary team works together to treat chronic and acute pain resulting from a wide range of conditions. IU Health physicians specializing in pain procedures are board certified in Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and have been specifically trained to manage pain.
