Some people say, “We all know that there are internal medicine, surgery, ear, nose and throat departments in hospitals, but how can there be such a department as pain department? Is it a small department under the Department of Anesthesiology? The Ministry of Health has officially issued a notice in 2007, decided to add the first-class diagnosis and treatment subjects in the “medical institution diagnosis and treatment subject list” “pain department”, code 27, the country’s second-class hospitals can carry out pain department diagnosis and treatment subjects, while the third-class hospitals in principle must have pain department diagnosis and treatment subjects. In the future, it is believed that more and more pain specialists will be able to relieve pain for the general public. Some data show that 30% of adults have experienced or are suffering from chronic pain, and 90% of patients are not getting the treatment they deserve, and do not know which department to go to for treatment. So which pains should be seen by a pain specialist? In summary, the following are the main aspects: 1, the pain of the obvious cause is not found, such as chronic general pain, headache, chest and back pain, abdominal pain, spinal pain, etc., although after many hospitals, multiple departments, long time repeated careful examination, but also not found with the cause of pain, do not know which department they should go to see the pain department. After careful examination by the pain doctor, including diagnostic treatment, most of the pain can be found out the pain site, and the fundamental treatment can be taken, often with satisfactory results. For example, herpes zoster was originally a dermatological disease, and at the beginning of herpes, the dermatology department had rich experience in treating it and good results. Most patients with herpes zoster will have their pain disappear naturally as their herpes improves, but there are a significant number of patients whose pain does not improve after the disappearance of herpes zoster, but becomes more severe, medically known as “postherpetic neuralgia”. This is a very stubborn painful disease, there is no special treatment in other departments, if you can go to the pain department for early treatment, you can often achieve satisfactory results. Then, such as residual limb pain or phantom limb pain after amputation, chronic intractable postoperative pain syndrome after various surgical procedures, etc. These pains are no longer the symptoms of the original pain treatment department, but constitute a new painful disease that requires treatment in the pain department. 3. neck, shoulder, lumbar and leg pain without surgical indication Certain patients with cervical spondylosis, spinal stenosis, lumbar disc herniation without surgical indication and patients with frozen shoulder, osteoarthritis, myofascial syndrome and osteoporosis that usually do not require surgery have persistent chronic pain and are suitable for treatment in the pain department. In addition, some painful diseases despite the indications for surgery, but the patient is not willing to accept surgery, or the postoperative efficacy is not significant, or postoperative pain and recurrence, etc., should also receive pain specialist comprehensive treatment. 4, neuropathic pain According to the definition of the International Pain Society, neuropathic pain refers to pain caused by primary lesions or dysfunction of the nervous system, such as central pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, burning neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, intercostal neuralgia, diabetic peripheral neuritis, etc. Neurogenic pain is a large category of very complex painful diseases, and conventional treatment is basically ineffective, often requiring special specialized techniques in pain departments, such as minimally invasive neurointerventional analgesia, spinal cord electrical stimulation, and central target-controlled analgesia techniques. Therefore, patients with this type of disease should visit the pain department. 5. Pain caused by certain chronic non septic arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, gout, etc. The pain department can take individualized analgesic programs for different diseases, which can minimize the pain of patients and provide strong support for the treatment of the primary disease. 6.Cancer pain Pain that still exists while or after completing anti-cancer treatment can be treated with special analgesic measures in the pain department – in addition to morphine drugs, minimally invasive neurointervention techniques such as nerve block and nerve destruction can also be adopted. Modern medical research shows that cancer and cancer pain are two separate diseases closely related to each other, and the degree of cancer pain is usually not proportional to the development of cancer. There is evidence that perfect pain treatment can not only improve the quality of life and survival of cancer patients, but also prolong their lives to a certain extent. In short, in a simple word, any patient who has poor results from medical medication and surgical treatment, or who does not have indications for surgery but has more severe pain, should be seen by a pain department as soon as possible. Currently, there are many patients in orthopedics, dermatology, and neurology who have experienced long periods of treatment without the desired pain relief. For example, some patients with herpes zoster may still have persistent and severe localized skin pain after the herpes has subsided, even more than when the herpes zoster started. In the past, doctors were at their wits’ end when faced with such patients – how can I treat them when there is no more herpes on the skin? Where to use the medicine? Some doctors even called “postherpetic neuralgia” the “undead cancer”. Now, the pain physicians have a series of standardized and orderly treatment methods, from the simplest oral medication to control pain, to the most advanced nerve modulation technology to relieve pain, the treatment method is scientific and standardized. To be precise, the pain department is a specialized department for the treatment of chronic pain, which can achieve the best treatment effect of today’s medicine in the face of intractable pain. The pain of cancer patients is only a part of the scope of treatment in pain medicine, and the term “chronic pain” is apt to summarize the scope of treatment in pain medicine. It is not always easy to live a life of peace and quiet. Likewise, everyone can suffer from pain. Although pain cannot be avoided, people cannot spend their whole life in pain. With a pain department and a pain specialist, I believe we can live with less pain and more happiness.