Need a doctor?
When your chronic back pain needs an intervention
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
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If you suffer from conditions associated with chronic back pain such as spinal stenosis, you’re a likely candidate for Bayhealth’s Interventional Pain Management program. The treatments offered include cervical and lumbar spinal epidural steroid injections, sacroiliac (SI) joint steroid injections and facet joint steroid injections.
“Primarily for treating spinal stenosis, these interventional pain management modalities are also used for degenerative changes in the SI and facet joints,” said Bayhealth Radiologist Freeman Hwang, MD. “These minimally invasive, nonsurgical procedures provide patients with one to six months of at least a moderate degree of pain relief. This allows them to participate in physical therapy and to perform everyday functions. Patients can receive follow-up injections, if necessary, but no more than three in six months.”
The injections are administered by board-certified, fellowship-trained radiologists at both Bayhealth hospitals. Dr. Hwang says the injections are given after the application of a local anesthetic to numb the skin, and with the help of X-ray imaging to guide the radiologist to the appropriate area. They take only 10 to 15 minutes to perform, followed by a short recovery. “You’re at the hospital for about two hours,” he said.
When Bayhealth’s Interventional Pain Management program began nine years ago, Vijay Viswanathan, MD, was the only radiologist performing the procedures. Now Dr. Hwang, who came on board four years ago, Joseph Livingston, MD, and Juan Ortega, MD, do them as well.
If you’re interested in receiving interventional pain management treatment, you need a referral from a doctor, typically an orthopaedic surgeon or a neurosurgeon.
Visit Bayhealth's Imaging page to learn more about Bayhealth's imaging services.
“Primarily for treating spinal stenosis, these interventional pain management modalities are also used for degenerative changes in the SI and facet joints,” said Bayhealth Radiologist Freeman Hwang, MD. “These minimally invasive, nonsurgical procedures provide patients with one to six months of at least a moderate degree of pain relief. This allows them to participate in physical therapy and to perform everyday functions. Patients can receive follow-up injections, if necessary, but no more than three in six months.”
The injections are administered by board-certified, fellowship-trained radiologists at both Bayhealth hospitals. Dr. Hwang says the injections are given after the application of a local anesthetic to numb the skin, and with the help of X-ray imaging to guide the radiologist to the appropriate area. They take only 10 to 15 minutes to perform, followed by a short recovery. “You’re at the hospital for about two hours,” he said.
When Bayhealth’s Interventional Pain Management program began nine years ago, Vijay Viswanathan, MD, was the only radiologist performing the procedures. Now Dr. Hwang, who came on board four years ago, Joseph Livingston, MD, and Juan Ortega, MD, do them as well.
If you’re interested in receiving interventional pain management treatment, you need a referral from a doctor, typically an orthopaedic surgeon or a neurosurgeon.
Visit Bayhealth's Imaging page to learn more about Bayhealth's imaging services.