Interventional pain medicine

Interventional Pain Medicine is a relatively new field which relies on the use of invasive procedures to treat various painful disorders. Many interventional pain physicians are board certified in Pain Medicine. While most are trained in pharmacology and how to prevent disuse injury, interventions are usually recommended to avoid the side effects of medications and surgery; enable the patient to become active, and endure through an aggressive rehabilitation program.

There are various agencies responsible for credentialing Pain Medicine Physicians. Not all physicians who practice pain medicine were trained in a recognized fellowship program. Many learned how to perform procedures from colleagues or additional training courses. Their are various board exams that a physician may take to become Board Certified in Pain Medicine. The number of board certified pain phsycians are expected to increase as criteria becomes stricter, and requirements become better defined by various agencies such as the American Board of Anesthesiology [http://www.theaba.org/examinations+certifications.shtml#pain] and the American Board of Pain Medicine. [http://www.abpm.org/what/index.html]

Many interventional pain physicians are trained in specialties such as Anesthesiology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery. The field is becoming quite competitive. Many pain medicine job opportunities have developed as society is becoming to realize that pain itself, can become a devastating disease. If it is not treated promptly and aggressively. Expenses to the individual and society can increase dramatically as these patients deteriorate.

Interventions that pain physicians may perform include various Nerve blocks (selective), Epidural steroid injections, Facet Joint (and any other joint) injections. Spinal cord stimulator implantation, and intrathecal pump implants.Muscle trigger point injections are also commonly performed by pain medicine physicians. There are many different procedures and techniques used by interventional pain physicians. As time goes on, the volume and variety is expected to increase. As training is not yet uniform, and the field is quite wide, it rare to find two pain physicians who practice the same exact way. It often is a practice of trial and error, diagnostic nerve blocks to pinpoint the etiology of the patients complaint. The physician must gain the patients trust, as it is not always a successful treatment after the first intervention. Fortunately, each failure is valuable in ruling out certain problems, and it usually brings the physician closer to a diagnosis and proper treatment.

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