Top Pain Management Center in Fort Worth: IR & Pain

The physiology of pain is a huge subject, and has far too many aspects to be covered in a short article like this one. On the one hand, pain is useful because it tells us that we're doing something harmful, like touching a hot stove. On the other hand, constant, chronic pain is one of the most horrible things a human can endure, and if you've experienced it you know why Dr. Albert Schweitzer said in 1931, "Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself."

Medical science has identified many different types of pain, and has done its best to come up with ways to help patients manage the pain they experience. One of the first effective pain relievers was developed from a substance in willow bark, and is still used today, as aspirin. Of course, there have been other anti-pain (analgesic) drugs since then, enough that making and selling them is now a multi-million dollar business. Drug treatment for pain also has some drawbacks, however, not least of which is that over 15,000 Americans die every year from overdoses of prescription pain medications.

So how is interventional radiology (IR) treatment of pain different?

As even the ancient Greeks and Romans realized, pain really "happens" in the human brain, not at the site of the stimulus that is causing the perception of pain. Some drug therapies seek to either slow the transmission of pain through the nerves so it doesn't reach the brain as quickly or powerfully, or sedate the brain sufficiently that it can't react to the pain stimuli. As a top pain management center in Fort Worth, the advanced IR procedures we specialize in at MTV IR are used more to block the pain signals, so they don't reach the brain in the first place.

Thus procedures such as epidural steroid injection and facet injection work by injecting an anesthetic and steroid combination into the joints or vertebrae that are causing the pain, and keeping them from sending signals to pain receptors in the brain. The selective nerve root block procedure is even more precise, and can be used to both diagnose the exact nerve bundles that are the source of neurological pain, and treat them so that they no longer send out pain signals. These procedures are why MTV IR is able to offer the best spine treatment options in Dallas.

Kyphoplasty is another procedure that can be used to treat pain resulting from compression fractures in the spine, and is considered one of the most effective back fracture treatments in Dallas. And finally, rhizotomy is a minimally-invasive, non-surgical procedure that allows MTV IR specialists to locate and then block the signals coming from "over-firing" nerve blocks that cause neuromuscular pain.

If you're suffering from chronic pain, have your doctors contact MTV IR

We are experienced in working with other doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and pain management specialists to find treatments that work to help patients manage their chronic pain and reduce or eliminate their reliance on analgesic drugs. Read through the links provided below or others on our website, or give us a call directly at 469-447-4008. We'll be happy to help in any way we can.

Author Bio: Doctors from a Top Pain Management Center in Fort Worth and Best Cancer Treatment Center in Dallas discuss the physiology of pain, and why the IR procedures they specialize in can help.