Chronic Pain
Aarti Singla, MD, CIME, MBA, is Board-Certified in Pain Medicine (ABPMR). She has recommended and implanted medical devices to manage chronic pain in her patients in her 10+ year clinical practice and opines and testifies about medical devices.
Chronic Pain
6+ Months. Chronic pain persists longer than six months.
This type of pain often results from an injury, the natural wear-and-tear of aging, or a long-term medical condition.
Acute Pain
Immediate. Acute pain is pain felt immediately or shortly after an injury, which lasts less than 6 months. It serves as a warning signal to the body that its health has been compromised.
The Law and Chronic Pain Damages
A deeper dive into these subjects can be found below
- IMEs
- Pain and Suffering Claims
- Personal Injury
- Ancillary Pain Medicine issues: Product Liability in medical devices
- Malpractice or Breach of the Standard of Care; physicians, nurses, unlicensed healthcare aides
Chronic pain symptoms and consequences
Chronic pain can manifest as joint pain due to an aggravated injury, trauma, arthritis, and overuse injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. Some forms of back and neck pain can also become chronic.
When left untreated, chronic pain can lead to a variety of adverse symptoms, such as:
- Headaches
- joint pain
- Poor sleep or insomnia
- Loss of interest in daily activities
- Inability to participate in family activities and intimate partner relationships (Loss of Consortium)
- Mood changes like anxiety, depression, and irritability
How is chronic pain managed?
Dr. Singla has specialized training in pain management. Pain management focuses on diagnosing, preventing, and treating painful health conditions.
Pain management can support care in a variety of ways, including:
- Locating pain sources and identifying the best course of treatment
- Managing long-term medications safely
- Helping patients avoid surgical procedures by introducing cutting-edge therapies
- Effectively controlling pain conditions that haven’t responded to traditional treatments
- Assisting rehabilitation after surgery
How are chronic pain conditions diagnosed?
A physiatrist performs a full medical and musculoskeletal evaluation, or a surgical examination to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan.
Additional tests might include X-rays, MRIs, neuropsychological exams, or electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies.
How do clinicians manage chronic pain in patients?
If Physical Therapy and other non-invasive, non-prescription medication therapies are ineffective, it may be necessary to carry out non-invasive procedures or a more invasive procedure like implanting a medical device.
- Spinal cord stimulators
- Trigger point injections
- Intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET)
- Percutaneous spinal disc decompression
- Diagnostic and therapeutic peripheral nerve blocks
- Pulsed and standard radiofrequency nerve ablation
More information from Johns Hopkins.
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Pain Treatment
Pain management is mainly focused on alleviating pain and enabling individuals to carry out day-to-day activities.
