Interventional pain medicine uses various methods to help manage pain without you having to undergo surgery. Millions of Americans are affected by chronic pain, which interferes with how they carry out their daily activities. Dr. Jessen Mukalel MD is a spine, sports, and interventional pain specialists in The Woodlands, TX, who provides a holistic approach to pain management to help you live a fulfilled life.
In interventional pain medicine, a physiatrist focuses on your whole body and not a particular part. Acute and chronic pain makes it impossible for you to function at your best. The role of a physiatrist is to help you be able to do your daily duties by enhancing your mobility and increasing your independence. The tenets of intervention medicine include prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of short-term and permanent disorders.
How does a physiatrist Control Pain?
When you come to our facility, Dr. Mukalel and his team will record your medical history and perform a thorough examination to help inform the best treatment option for you. The doctor will discuss with you all the available treatment methods which include modalities, injection, cognitive therapy, adaptive devices, and therapeutic exercise.
Types of Treatments and Procedures in Interventional Pain Medicine
Regenerative medicine: This procedure involves replacing human tissues, cells, and organs to help restore normal function. Examples of regenerative medicine include stem cell treatment and platelet-rich therapy.
Musculoskeletal ultrasound: Musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging is a non-invasive diagnostic method where sound waves are used to produce pictures of ligament, tendons, muscles, and joints.
Interventional spinal therapeutics: In interventional spinal therapeutics, spinal diagnostics and injections are done using digital imaging. Interventional spinal therapeutics procedures include interlaminar and transforaminal epidurals, spinal cord stimulation, radiofrequency ablations, intrathecal pump placements, and discograms.
Electrodiagnostics (EMG): This is a method used to test whether the nerves and muscles are functioning as required. Small needles are placed in the muscles of the leg, arm, or lower back to help check on electrical activity due to muscle contraction. This will make you feel like you are having minor muscle cramps. A physiatrist can establish what is causing you neck and back pain, loss of strength, tingling, and numbness using electrodiagnostic.
Peripheral joint injections – This procedure is used in the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue and bone pain which is common in sports injuries or among people who have rheumatoid arthritis.
Trigger point injections/Dry needling/ Lidocaine: This treatment can be used together with physical therapy and exercise to help establish the origin of soft tissue pain.
Conditions that can be Treated Using Interventional Pain Medicine
Interventional pain medicine primarily involves the treatment of joints, muscles, bones, and the central nervous system. The following are some of the specializations in this field:
Neurorehabilitation: Spinal cord injury, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, and multiple sclerosis.
Pain Medicine: Complex regional pain syndrome, back pain, chronic pain management, and arthritis.
Nerve Pain: Carpal tunnel syndrome, radiculopathy (cervical and lumbar), and neuropathy.
Musculoskeletal care: Back Pain, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, sacroiliac joint disorders, and osteoarthritis.
Sports Injuries: Knee pain, concussion, pelvic pain, Achilles tendonitis, and rotator cuff pathology.
Is chronic or acute pain preventing you from achieving your goal in life? Visit us today to learn more about intervention pain medicine.
