To find the root cause of your discomfort, Dr. Manvar will check your vital signs, review your symptoms and medical history, and complete a thorough physical exam. A history and physical exam is usually the best way to identify sources of pain- directly from the patient’s experience. He will often recommend imaging including X-rays, CT scans and MRIs and sometimes order nerve nesting (EMG) to develop the most effective pain management treatment plan.

Some of the many types of pain management solutions include:

• Physical Therapy
• Medication Management (opioid and non-opioid)
• Minimally-Invasive Nerve and Joint Injections
• Spinal Cord Stimulation
• Peripheral Nerve Stimulation
• Radiofrequency Ablation
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Interventional procedures are primarily considered after conservative medical treatments fail to provide pain relief and before you resort to surgical intervention. Recent advancements in technology and technique with injections have helped to reduce inflammation, alleviate pain, enhance cell regeneration, lubricate your joints, and/or release tight muscle fibers. Most injections take just a few minutes and do not require any recovery time.

Three of the most common non-surgical treatments include:

What is a Nerve Block?
A nerve block is an injection that targets the nerve or pain receptor responsible for your pain. The injection contains an anesthetic medicine that blocks the nerve signal, so it can’t send a message to your brain. When your brain doesn’t receive the nerve signal, you won’t feel the pain.

The anesthetic in a nerve block is typically mixed with a steroid that reduces inflammation and provides longer-lasting pain relief. Nerve blocks can target many different nerves to help alleviate pain from numerous conditions.

What is an Epidural Injection?
An epidural injection is a procedure in which medication is placed into an area of your spine called the epidural space. The steroid and anesthetic mixture into this space can flow around the targeted nerve, bathing it in pain-relieving medication.

With an epidural injection, you can get enough pain relief to start a physical therapy program, which helps you reduce pain and maintain mobility for the long term.

Epidural steroid injections provide relief for a variety of back conditions such as:

• Herniated disc
• Osteoarthritis
• Spinal stenosis
• Sciatica
• Degenerative disc disease
• Spondylolisthesis

What is a Joint Injection?
Joint injections can consist of synthetic gel to mimic your body’s natural joint lubricant, anesthetic alone or with a steroid. This can be performed on any major or minor joints like the knees, hips, shoulders, elbow, ankle, sacroiliac joint, or even fingers. The injection takes just seconds and can provide immediate relief with improved function.

Pain is a subjective experience and varies widely from each individual. It is a personal experience and what may be mild pain to one person can feel severe and overwhelming to another. The same condition or diagnosis can require completely different kinds of care and sometimes even repeated treatment to see improvement. But acknowledging your individual experience is what we are trained to do at Integrative Pain & Spine Institute and we treat each patient individually. Our goal is to get you back to re-living life again!