Our Services / Interventional Pain Management

Anyone who lives with chronic pain knows that it's hard to get satisfactory relief with standard medical care. When you still struggle with pain after routine treatments, it's time to learn about interventional pain management. As a specialist in interventional medicine, as well as physical medicine and rehabilitation, Rajiv Sood, DO, and the team at Spine and Orthopedic Center use advanced diagnostics and interventional techniques to help patients find significant and long-lasting pain relief. To schedule an appointment, call the office in Jonesboro, Georgia, or use the online booking feature today.

What is interventional pain management?

Pain management focuses on relieving severe and chronic pain that doesn't improve after standard medical care. Interventional pain management is a highly specialized field that manages your pain by directly targeting the nerves relaying pain signals to your brain.

Dr. Sood begins your care with a physical exam and intensive diagnostics, including digital X-rays, ultrasound, electromyography (EMG), and MRIs. Using his advanced experience, he combines the information from your physical exam and imaging to find the best treatment options.

With a firm belief that patients should always understand the underlying problem, Dr. Sood takes the time needed to show patients their diagnostic images, explain the problem, and answer their questions.

Going the extra mile to talk about the source of their pain allows patients to participate in their health care decisions and achieve optimal outcomes.

What interventional pain management treatments might I receive?

Dr. Sood has extensive experience performing many interventional techniques that treat nerves in your body and spine. As a result, they can ease pain arising from nearly anywhere in your body, including knee, shoulder, back, and neck pain.

These are a few examples of interventional treatments:

• Epidural steroid injections
• Facet joint injections
• Sacroiliac joint injections
• Sympathetic nerve blocks
• Medial branch blocks
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Spinal cord stimulation

During your interventional procedure, Dr. Sood uses real-time X-ray imaging to see the nerve and carefully guide the needle to the one nerve responsible for your pain.

How do interventional pain management techniques work?

Interventional treatments use several techniques, but they work in two basic ways. They reduce inflammation in the nerve or stop the nerve from carrying pain messages to your brain. When your brain doesn't get the pain signal, your pain significantly diminishes.

When treating nerve inflammation, Dr. Sood injects corticosteroids. There are several techniques for blocking pain signals. A few examples include:

Nerve block

Dr. Sood can target many different nerves and inject a local anesthetic to block the signals.

Radiofrequency ablation

After a nerve block verifies the exact nerve relaying pain messages, Dr. Sood uses a specialized needle to send a controlled amount of radiofrequency energy into the nerve. The heat creates a wound on the nerve that blocks the electrical signals. 

This technique gives you pain relief that lasts for many months until the nerve regenerates.

Spinal cord stimulation

A spinal cord stimulator sends electrical impulses into targeted spinal nerves. The impulse blocks or masks the pain signals in the affected nerves.

If you're ready to finally find relief from your pain, call Spine and Orthopedic Center, or book an appointment online today.