Many people may have the question: What kind of department is pain medicine? What is the origin of the doctors in pain medicine? What kind of diseases should be seen in pain medicine? What is the difference between pain medicine and orthopedics and neurology in terms of treatment of headaches and joint pain?
Pain medicine is a product of social demand
”Why do you say that? In the very early days, the greatest happiness of the population’s life was to be well fed and clothed. With the development of the economy and society, the lifestyle of the population has changed, the ratio of physical to mental work has decreased, society tends to age, the incidence of chronic pain diseases has increased, and the population is more concerned about their quality of life. When traditional medical treatments for pain are not ideal and not so severe that surgical treatment is necessary, pain medicine becomes a good choice for consultation.”
Compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States, the domestic pain discipline has lagged relatively behind. The development of pain medicine in Europe and the United States began around the 1950s, Asian countries such as Japan began in the 1960s, and China started in the 1970s.
The development of pain medicine is highly correlated with the changes in people’s awareness of pain and medical treatment philosophy. For example, in the past, childbirth was naturally painful, but now it is thought that it should not be so painful, so there is labor analgesia. Another example is neck, shoulder, back and leg pain, which can be conservative in mild cases and surgical in severe cases, but some patients are still unsatisfied after conservative treatment and do not need surgery or do not want to operate, so minimally invasive treatment in pain department is a good choice.
There is also post-surgical pain, which was considered difficult to avoid in the past, but now the concept is to perform post-operative analgesia. This is because it not only speeds up the recovery, but also shortens the hospital stay and saves medical resources.
The concern for pain and the satisfaction of this need for pain treatment is in itself a great progress for society and has a great impact on the whole medical treatment. The original Ministry of Health document calling for the establishment of pain departments reflects the importance the Chinese government attaches to improving the quality of life of patients, and has put China’s rapidly developing, albeit late, pain specialty at the forefront of what is the envy of its peers around the world.
”In fact, medicine is not omnipotent, and many diseases cannot be cured, but what can medicine do, it can help patients. On this level, pain medicine is actually playing its unique role in this regard.”
Pain medicine mostly uses minimally invasive techniques to treat diseases
The treatment applied by the pain department is a fusion of minimally invasive treatment techniques between traditional conservative treatment and surgical treatment and Chinese and Western medicine pain treatment techniques, which plays a good complementary role and enriches the clinical treatment means, which is gladly accepted by the majority of patients. Of course, the pain physician must first make a clear diagnosis, strictly define the stage the patient’s condition is in, and recommend the most appropriate department and treatment plan for the patient.
Pain is divided into acute pain and chronic pain. Many patients play a big role in minimally invasive treatment when they have tried many methods to no avail, but are not yet ready for surgical treatment, or when they are unwilling to undergo surgical treatment. The specialty of the pain department is the minimally invasive treatment technique between traditional surgery and conservative treatment, which is an enrichment and supplement to the traditional treatment technique.
What is the origin of the doctors in the pain department?
At present, the doctors in the pain department come from various departments, including anesthesiologists, surgeons and even physicians. When residents are trained in a standardized way, it is difficult to match the requirements of other departments with those of pain medicine. Moreover, any problems in building the echelon as an emerging discipline and a new specialty, such as the promotion of young doctors, will affect its healthy development.
The ideal pain physician should look like this: five years of medical school, three years of residency training, rotations in related specialties, mainly anesthesiology, and two years of pain specialty training.
Pain medicine mainly treats chronic pain
In recent years, the successive introduction of national policies have responded to the development of the discipline. It is reported that in 2011, the national pain departments have been as many as 5,000, of which 1/3 of the tertiary hospitals have pain departments, 2/3 of the secondary hospitals have pain departments.
The 277th document issued by the Ministry of Health stipulates that pain departments can be carried out in hospitals above the second level. From the very beginning of the establishment of the pain department, its positioning is chronic pain. The International Association for the Study of Pain pointed out in the last century that chronic pain is a disease, and since 2004, the third Monday of October has been designated as “World Analgesia Day”, and the Chinese Pain Society has designated the week as “Chinese Analgesia Week”, with a theme every year. This year’s theme is neuropathic pain, in order to draw attention to the pain of different patients. It is believed that with the active work of these professional organizations, the dedication of professional physicians, the continuous updating of health concepts and the enrichment of treatment methods, the pain department will certainly make its due contribution to improving the quality of life of all people.
What diseases require consultation in the pain department?
Neck, shoulder, back and leg pain, cervical spondylosis, cervical dizziness and headache, frozen shoulder, lumbar disc herniation, senile knee pain, heel pain, chronic soft tissue injury, trigeminal neuralgia, postherpetic neuralgia, cancer pain, post-diabetic neuralgia, central pain, post-spinal cord injury pain, phantom limb pain, residual limb pain, post-brachial plexus nerve injury pain, linguopharyngeal neuralgia, sudden deafness, ischemic cardiovascular disease and menopausal syndrome, etc.
What are the treatment methods of pain department?
1.Acupuncture, Tuina, fumigation therapy;
2.Percutaneous O3 fasciotomy;
3.Nerve block therapy;
4.Focal injection therapy;
5.Acupuncture therapy;
6.Radiofrequency targeted thermal coagulation therapy;
7.Ozone ablation and large autologous blood therapy;
8.Spinal endoscopic disc removal under direct vision;
9.Neuromodulation and spinal cord electrical stimulation therapy;
10.Intrathecal infusion therapy;
11.Microvascular decompression therapy;
12.Suspension exercise, pulse short wave, ultrasonic drug ion introduction, semiconductor laser and other non-invasive therapies.