Pain management
Pain management involves various strategies to alleviate or control pain, ranging from medications and physical therapy to alternative therapies like acupuncture and mindfulness techniques. Its goal is to improve quality of life by reducing pain intensity and enhancing functionality for individuals experiencing acute or chronic pain.
Subscribe to the BlogDoes Anesthesia Increase Surgery Dementia Risk?
This morning’s study is near and dear to my heart. When I was a medical student, my father broke his hip and needed surgery. After surgery in the hospital where I was training, he experienced severe postoperative delirium. It was epic “sundowning,” which foreshadowed his upcoming dementia and slow descent into his own personal hell…read more
Chronic Pain Programs Rise from the Ashes: This Was Silly in the ’90s and It’s Still Silly Today
Back in the ’90s, when I was a young physician, we had many “chronic pain programs” in town. These were made up of an interdisciplinary team of physicians and therapists who would be the court of last resort for patients in pain for whom traditional medicine couldn’t help. The problem was that patients would graduate…read more Dramatic Improvement in Severely Degenerated Cervical Joint Without Surgery
I’ve spent the last 12 years staring at MRIs before and after orthopedic stem cell treatments. I’ve seen some incredible things in many conditions and some MRIs that didn’t change. This past week, as I reviewed the MRI of a patient with a severely degenerated cervical facet joint that we had treated at our licensed facility…read more Surgery to Remove Cartilage in the Knee: Not Effective!
Surgery to remove cartilage in the knee likely happens thousands of time each day. The surgeon pokes in the arthroscope and sees a cartilage flap, a piece of cartilage that is attached at one end and no longer connected to the bone. The doctor then shaves that piece of cartilage off. Why? No particular scientific…read more Steroid Injections Kill Cartilage, so Why Not a Long Acting Steroid Shot?
Last month, a high-level research study confirmed what we’ve known for years: the anti-inflammatory steroid that the average family doctor, pain-management specialist, or orthopedic surgeon is injecting into your knee is killing the cartilage. So that research should put the whole steroid injection thing to bed, right? Nope. Surprisingly, this week, a company called Flexion has announced…read more RIP Radiofrequency Ablation Treatment for Low Back Pain
When Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) became popular in the late 90s, it seemed like a miracle for many patients with chronic neck pain. At the same time, while this therapy seemed to work reliably to provide pain relief in the neck, it was always hit or miss as a treatment for low back pain. Perhaps that’s…read more Epidural Steroid Side Effects: Repeated Injections Cause Diminishing Relief
On the surface, as a nonsurgical way to relieve pain and inflammation, epidural steroid injections seem like a great idea. However, when we dive beneath the surface, we find that epidural steroid side effects are pretty awful. I’ve observed many times, that for some patients, that while that first shot seems nothing short of miraculous,…read more NSAIDs and Opioids May Not Work for Pain!
As if we needed yet another reason to just say no to NSAIDs and opioids, it seems that some of them just aren’t working. So while you may be getting a lot with these drugs—the risk of sudden-death heart attacks and strokes and GI bleeding with NSAIDS, and addiction and more pain with opioids, for…read more 
