Pain Management

When your pain is well controlled, you are better able to be an active participant in all aspects of your life. Our healthcare team works closely with each patient to prevent and relieve pain and discomfort. Treatment begins with a thorough evaluation by a board-certified pain management specialist.

Greenwich Hospital Center for Pain Management offers highly individualized inpatient and outpatient care to help people lead productive, enjoyable lives, free of the complications of chronic pain. Because each person perceives pain differently, patients are encouraged to be active partners in their care. Continued personal involvement is key to proper diagnosis and the most successful treatment and rehabilitation possible. Whether your pain is from surgery, illness, accident or another cause, Greenwich Hospital’s pain specialists employ a wide variety of therapies to provide relief for your specific condition.

The Center for Pain Management medical team consists of board-certified pain management specialist physicians, radiology technicians and nurses.

Interventional Pain Management Options

New advances in pain management offer patients a growing number of options including:

• Basivertebral nerve ablation treats chronic low back pain due to degenerative disease. This treatment is used in carefully selected patients by specifically targeting pathology in the lumbar spine.
• Botox injections to treat migraines that have not responded to medication.
• Epidural steroid injections to treat pain arising from nerve impingement caused by disc herniations and arthritis. Examples are cervical, thoracic and lumbar epidurals.
• Joint injections using ultrasound or x-ray to place medication into a painful joint to alleviate symptoms. Examples are injections to relieve shoulder, knee, hip, facet and SI (sacroiliac) joint pain.
• Minimally-invasive lumbar decompression corrects the main cause of lumbar spinal stenosis to help improve pain and mobility.
• Nerve blocks local anesthetic is used with or without steroids to selectively target nerves around the source of pain to alleviate symptoms. Examples are medial branch blocks and peripheral nerve blocks.
• Peripheral nerve stimulation targets and treats nerves that are painful to provide long-term pain relief. This treatment can be applied to many areas of the body including the neck, back, shoulder, groin and knee.
• PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections use a patient’s own blood cells to accelerate healing in various conditions, such as joint and tendon injuries.
• Radiofrequency ablation uses heat to selectively destroy nerve tissue from arthritic joints in the neck, back and joints to lessen or eliminate pain signals.
• Spinal cord stimulation delivers small electrical currents at the spinal cord to alter a patient’s perception of pain signals coming from various parts of the body and provide relief.
• Sympathetic ganglion blocks are a procedure that can offer pain relief in neuropathic pain, visceral pain and vascular pain.
• Trigger point injections treat pain from muscle spasms to help improve stiffness, range of motion and pain.

All treatments are same-day, minimally-invasive, and image-guided for safety and to provide the best possible outcomes.

Pain control options may also include:

• Counseling and behavioral programs
• Nutritional consultation
• Pain relief medication
• Physical and occupational therapy
• Relaxation techniques including meditation, healing touch therapy, massage or music

Who Can Benefit?

Patients can schedule a pain consultation before or after surgery. Patients can also come to the Center for Pain Management for relief from pain syndromes that have not responded to other therapies. These include:

• Back and leg pain including sciatica and peripheral neuropathy
• Cervicogenic headaches
• Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) or causalgia
• Degenerative joint disease and arthritis
• General pain from sports injuries
• Ischemic pain
• Inguinodynia
• Muscle spasms or myofascial pain
• Neck pain
• Painful diabetic neuropathy
• Pain from motor vehicle accidents
• Pelvic and visceral pain disorders
• Post-surgical pain syndromes
• Refractory migraines
• Shingles or post-herpetic neuralgia
• Tendinopathies
• Work-related injuries