PAIN MANAGEMENT

Understanding Pain Management

Pain management is the medical specialty that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of pain symptoms. A pain management physician typically specializes in anesthesiology or physical medicine and rehabilitation. In either case that physician spends additional time in training specializing in pain treatment for various health related problems.

The pain care specialist focuses on diagnosing what may be causing a person’s pain symptoms to develop a treatment plan that can relieve the pain symptoms with the least dependence on long-term use of painkillers and other drugs that may affect internal organs and shorten a person’s lifespan.

A pain management specialist addresses “acute pain” and “chronic pain” problems. Acute pain is pain that came on suddenly as a result of trauma or disease. Examples of acute pain include:

• trauma
• cuts, infections, or burns
• pulled or strained muscles
• sprains of a body part

Chronic pain is a pain problem that exists for a longer period of time, such as three to six months or more. Chronic pain typically is harder to treat.

There is also “neuropathic pain” caused by disease or illnesses that upset the body’s normal functions. This types of pain problems include:

• diabetic neuropathy
• cancer
• multiple sclerosis
• postherpetic neuralgia
• post-surgery neuropathic pain
• spinal cord injuries

Pain can be sourced in connective tissues, skin, muscles or bones in the body. Other types of pain that can be challenging to diagnose and treat are pain problems that exist when there is no obvious source of injury or trauma. This can include problems like:

• irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)
• fibromyalgia
• jaw or dental pain

Depending on the pain problem the pain management specialist may use wide range of nonsurgical treatment options, interventional treatments or therapies. While medications may be used to relieve symptoms, long-term dependence on drugs can damage internal organs and shorten a person’s lifespan. Consequently, the pain management physician may use interventional treatments like injections or other procedures that provide long lasting pain relief without the use of drugs.

For example, for back pain and neck pain, the pain specialist may provide spinal injections that put pain medication directly to the precise level in the spine for a herniated disc or inflamed nerve root. Rather than medicating the entire body with a drug or pill, the pain relief is target to the pain generator in the precise level of the spine. This enables the back or neck pain patient to “bridge” to physical therapy which can then loosen and strengthen soft tissues in the back and neck, making them resistant to future strain.

Treatment with Hannahan Comprehensive Pain Care

At Hannahan Comprehensive Pain, Dr. Robert Hannahan has specialized in pain management for over 30 years and is referred patients from across the cities in the Gulf Coast on the Florida panhandle as well as South Alabama. Dr. Hannahan is referred pain patients that suffer from back pain, neck pain, knee pain, hip pain, cancer pain and diabetic neuropathy. Our goal is to find pain management solutions that lessens a person’s long-term dependence on drugs and pills. Our goal is to help people recover an active lifestyle, return to work and their favorite recreational activities where possible. The Panama City office is convenient to the Gulf Coast cities of Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Santa Rosa Beach and South Walton county.

This educational web site provides information on how Hannahan Comprehensive Pain Care can help the following healthcare issues:

• Back pain and neck pain relief with spinal injections
• Knee pain relief after knee replacement
• Hip pain relief from arthritis and after hip replacement
• Chronic pain issues
• Cancer pain
• Diabetic neuropathy
• Spinal cord stimulation from failed back surgery
• Regenerative medicine

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