Since pain medicine is a new discipline, many people among the medical staff do not know much about it, not to mention the patients. One patient said, “I’ve had headaches for 20 years, and I’ve been to neurology numerous times, but I can’t get it right, so I don’t have confidence in seeing a doctor anymore. Who knew that after three visits to the pain department I would be cured.” The low visibility of the pain department among patients is also one of the reasons for the low consultation rate. In the traditional concept, people only know the internal, external, gynecological and pediatric departments, but they do not know that pain is also a medical discipline that can be directly examined, treated and prescribed; in addition, due to their own economic situation, some patients only pay attention to “life-saving medicine”, that is, they think that the high mortality rate of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases need to go to the hospital Treatment. In the past, many people did not know which department to go to when they were sick, which led to many painful diseases becoming difficult to treat, and many people chose to “follow the advertisement”, resulting in a lot of money spent, but the disease is getting worse. Nowadays, as “pain” is gradually recognized and paid attention to by the medical community, most hospitals have set up special pain departments to specifically “deal with” all kinds of pain. Remind patients: when pain symptoms appear, you should first choose to go to the pain department, do not take painkillers at will, which will not only damage liver and kidney function, hematopoietic function, but also cover up some life-threatening major diseases. A patient with neck, shoulder and back pain, who thought it was frozen shoulder, later got worse and went to the pain department to find out the real cause was lung cancer, but had missed the best time for treatment. Approaching Pain Medicine Pain medicine is a medical unit that diagnoses and treats pain and painful diseases. For a long time, due to the lack of professional pain disease diagnosis and treatment departments, many patients suffering from pain diseases seek medical treatment without purpose, and often fail to obtain effective treatment or even relief after treatment by many departments, and such patients even lose confidence in seeking medical treatment and hospitals. The establishment of the pain department has put an end to the embarrassing situation of “small pain department, but big pain department does not care”, which is the gospel of the majority of patients with pain diseases. How does pain happen? In order to treat pain, we must first understand how pain occurs. We often suffer from pain due to collision, sprain and other types of trauma in our daily life and work, and pain can also occur after unconscious exposure to cold, humidity, overexertion and long-term inappropriate working position. Pain can be divided into acute pain and chronic pain from the course of the disease, headache, neck and shoulder pain, chest and abdominal pain, back and leg pain, etc. From the source of pain, it can be divided into soft tissue pain, joint pain, neuralgia, etc. Most of the pain from the above causes can be relieved or alleviated in the pain department. Since the causes of pain and pain itself are very complex, it takes a certain period of time for a specialist to distinguish the categories and make a relatively clear diagnosis, and then the right medicine can be prescribed. What are the dangers of pain? I can’t eat because of the pain… I can’t sleep because of the pain… I can’t get up because of the pain… I can’t walk because of the pain… I can’t do anything because of the pain! It seems that we hear these words all the time around us! The harm and negative impact of pain on the human body is immeasurable, leading to dysfunction of the body’s cardiovascular system, digestive system, endocrine system, etc., low immunity, which in turn induces a variety of complications, often accompanied by disorders of plant nerve function. It can also cause varying degrees of mental fear, panic, depression, anxiety, sadness and other adverse emotions, and even cause painful disability or affect the life of the patient, which brings great pain and negative effects to the patient and other members of his family. It is evident that pain has become one of the major killers of human health and one of the most common and direct factors causing the loss of human working capacity. Pain is an important signal of human illness. Long-term pain tolerance can conceal the development of the disease, delay the best time for treatment, and self-promote the deterioration of the disease. Pain is a disease in itself. If a small one is not treated, a big one will die! Tolerating pain will lead to deep damage to body tissues and increase the rate of disability and mortality! Who is suitable to visit the pain department? The Department of Pain Medicine is a multidisciplinary interdisciplinary field involving many clinical specialties, so the scope of specialties is relatively wide, including: various acute and chronic pain, such as trigeminal neuralgia, migraine, frozen shoulder, cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis, geriatric osteoarthrosis, herpes zoster and post-herpetic nerve pain, advanced cancer pain, long-term post-operative pain, phantom limb pain after amputation, etc. Any chronic, long-term pain that bothers people’s life and health can be treated at the pain department. The common intractable pains are as follows: ① Trigeminal neuralgia, also known as “painful spasm”, is a recurrent transient and severe pain involving one or more distribution areas of the trigeminal nerve confined to the face. Although this disease is easy to diagnose, many patients cannot be cured for tens of years. ②Post-herpetic neuralgia, which is persistent and severe pain even after the lesions (scars) of herpes zoster have completely healed. ③Post-operative lumbar pain, which refers to patients who have frequent lumbar pain even after their primary disease has been removed due to spinal surgery for various reasons. (iv) Intractable headache, a symptom of persistent headache for years and years. ⑤ Phantom limb pain, a subjective feeling that the amputated limb still exists, and a hallucination of severe pain. For example, the patient has one thigh amputated, but the patient feels it is still present but with toe discomfort or pain. Is the pain a symptom or a disease? If you sit for a long time, you will have back pain; if you use your brain too much, you will have a headache; if you eat something cold, you may have a toothache; after surgery, you will feel a painful bout; and in some diseases, you will have pain all over your body. …… “Pain” is the earliest and most subjective feeling that people experience in their lives. The most common pains are those that many people are used to or even do not take for granted. Pain, divided into acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain is caused by the primary disease, and with the cure of the primary disease, the pain also disappears. For example, if a wound hurts after surgery, the pain is relieved when the wound heals. Chronic pain often persists after the primary disease is cured, and the pain tends to increase progressively. The pathological and physiological changes of the body are completely different from the primary disease, such as some patients with herpes zoster, although the herpes has disappeared, but the pain is still prolonged for several years or even for life. The World Health Organization has clearly pointed out that acute pain is a symptom and chronic pain is a disease. The clinical term for diseases with “pain” as the main symptom is “pain disorders”. What treatment methods are available in the pain department? Minimally invasive treatment system The common method is to treat the lesion by puncture and positioning under the guidance of C-arm X-ray machine or CT equipment. The existing minimally invasive treatment systems and equipment: ozone precision treatment system (medical ozone itself is a kind of analgesic without side effects), radiofrequency thermal coagulation treatment system, plasma surgery system, etc. have been developed and successfully used in clinical practice. Pharmacological treatment includes narcotic analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and combined analgesic programs that can achieve adequate analgesia through the addition and synergy of different analgesics. Nerve block and nerve destruction therapy The pain is treated by blocking the nerve conduction pathway of pain, there are pain point block, peripheral nerve block, intravertebral block and sympathetic nerve block. Corresponding to this is the nerve nutrition and repair method to treat specific pain, such as postherpetic neuralgia, etc. Director An Jianxiong of our center uses this innovative therapy to treat postherpetic neuralgia with exact effect and little damage to the nerves, which has been awarded CCTV-10 “Approaching Science” – “Mutation of It has been reported by CCTV-10 “Approaching Science” and Xinhua website. Patient-controlled analgesic PCA and psychotherapy V. Physical therapy includes massage, tui-na, massage, electrotherapy with artificial physical factors, ionizing air therapy, microwave electrotherapy, etc. Electric stimulation therapy Electric stimulation of various levels of the nervous system can produce analgesic effects through the interaction mechanism of endogenous neuromodulation system. Commonly used methods include transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS therapy), transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation (SPP therapy), epidural interstitial electrical stimulation therapy, etc. Other methods include herbal medicine and acupuncture.