Pain Management

When you are in pain, it is sometimes difficult to focus on anything else in your life. At MercyOne, we take time to listen to and understand your individual concerns. Whether you suffer from temporary pain due to illness, injury, chronic cancer-related pain or end-of-life pain, we are here to help you.

What type of pain management does MercyOne offer?

At MercyOne, we provide highly comprehensive interventional pain management and relief that keeps you going without the pain. Through evidence-based, patient-centered care using leading-edge technology and today’s most advanced treatment techniques, we offer long-lasting solutions to pain to help you live your best life.

Epidural Steroid Injections (ESI)

An ESI works by delivering steroids directly to the painful area to help decrease the inflammation that may be causing the pain. An epidural injection is typically used to alleviate chronic low back or leg pain. While the effects of the injection tend to be temporary, providing relief from pain for one week up to one year can be very beneficial during an episode of severe pain. It also provides sufficient pain relief to allow you to progress with your rehabilitation program.

Trigger Point Injections

Trigger point injections (TPI) are used to treat extremely painful areas of muscle by injecting an anesthetic directly into the muscle. A trigger point is a knot or tight band of muscle that forms when a muscle fails to relax. The knot often can be felt under the skin and may twitch involuntarily when touched. The trigger point can trap or irritate surrounding nerves and cause referred pain (pain felt in another part of the body). Because of this “referred pain,” trigger points can mimic pinched nerves.

Facet Joint Injections

Lumbar facet joints are small joints located in pairs on the back of your spine. They provide stability and guide motion in your low back. If the joints become painful, they may cause pain in your low back, abdomen, buttocks, groin or legs.

A facet joint injection provides temporary pain relief allowing a chiropractor or physical therapist to treat the joint. Also, the time release cortisone (steroid) that is injected will help to reduce any inflammation that may exist within your joint(s).

Sacroiliac Joint Injections

The sacroiliac joint is the part of your lower back made up of the sacrum (the bony structure above your tailbone and below your lower vertebrae) and the top part of your pelvis. It is the part of the low back just behind your waist. You have right and left sacroiliac joints. Symptoms of sacroiliac joint pain can include pain in the sacroiliac area, difficulty bending or twisting your low back, pain after sitting for a long time, stiffness in the low back, hip or leg, or a feeling of being “out of alignment.”

A sacroiliac joint injection serves several purposes. First, by placing numbing medicine into the joint, the amount of immediate pain relief experienced will help confirm or deny the joint as a source of pain. Additionally, the temporary relief of the numbing medicine may better allow a chiropractor or physical therapist to treat that joint. Also, cortisone (steroid) will help to reduce any inflammation that may exist within the joint(s).

Kyphoplasty

Kyphoplasty is a minimally invasive procedure performed to treat vertebral compression fractures of the spine. These fractures, which can be painful and limit spine mobility, are commonly caused by osteoporosis, spinal tumors and traumatic injury. Traditional treatments of bed rest, pain medication and braces are slow to relieve the pain. By injecting bone cement into the fractured bone and restoring the vertebra height, these procedures offer faster recovery and reduce the risk of progressing and flattening fractures in the treated bone.

Radiofrequency Lesioning

Radiofrequency lesioning of nerves is a procedure that may be used to reduce certain kinds of chronic pain by preventing transmission of pain signals. This is done mostly for arthritis pain in the lumbar or cervical spine, but it can also be used to treat chronic pain from shingles. It is a safe procedure in which a portion of nerve tissue is heated to cause a long-lasting interruption in pain signals and reduce pain in that area. This procedure is sometimes called radiofrequency ablation.

Spinal Cord Stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation uses low-voltage stimulation of the spinal nerves to block the feeling of pain. This is done by implanting a small battery-powered generator in your body that transmits an electrical current to your spinal cord. The result is a tingling sensation instead of pain. Newer methods can be programmed to have no tingling feeling. It can help manage pain and potentially decrease the use of pain medication. It may be an option if you have long-term pain and have not found relief through traditional methods.

Sympathetic Nerve Block

A sympathetic nerve block targets the sympathetic nervous system, a series of nerves that spread out from your spine to your body to help control several involuntary body functions. The location of your pain usually determines where you’ll receive the nerve block. Your sympathetic nerves come together outside your spine area in thick networks of nerves called ganglia. Once the involved ganglion is located, it is blocked by injecting it with an anesthetic solution, or sometimes other chemicals are used. You can go home after the procedure and return to your normal activities after a day of rest.

Targeted Nerve Blocks

A nerve block is an anesthetic or anti-inflammatory injection targeted toward a certain nerve or group of nerves to treat pain. The medication delivered by injection will be placed as close as possible to the nerve causing the pain. It will then “shut down” the pain receptors within the nerve(s) causing the problem. Imaging can help our experts place the needle in exactly the right spot. The imaging itself is painless. The effects of the injection are usually immediate. However, nerve blocks are typically short-acting, but they may reset some hyperactivity in the nerve to give you long-term relief.