The UCSD Center for Pain Medicine provides pain treatment for a wide variety of conditions, including but not limited to:
The Center for Pain Medicine provides a wide range of therapeutic and diagnostic techniques in pain management, which include pharmacological, non-pharmacological and procedure methods.
Pharmacological methods include treatment with:
- Opiate “pain killers” (in selected patients)
- Antiinflammatory drugs
- Antidepressants
- Anticonvulsants
Non-pharmacological methods include:
- Psychological evaluation and therapy
- Physical therapy
- Acupuncture
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve and muscle stimulation (TENS)
- Therapeutic touch
- Chiropractic therapy
The Center offers a variety of procedures to treat pain, which are often used in combination with other therapies.
In addition, the vast majority of these procedures are performed under fluoroscopic guidance, including:
- Epidural steroid injections
- Diagnostic and therapeutic spinal injections
- Plexus blocks (Celiac/hypogastric)
- Sympathetic nerve blocks (Stellate/thoracic/lumbar)
- Facet joint injections
- Sacroiliac joint injections
- Trigger point injections
- Botulinum toxin injections
- Peripheral nerve blocks
- Radiofrequency ablation techniques (both pulsed and high temperature)
- Intradiscal electrothermal annuloplasty
- Discal nucleoplasty
- Spinal endoscopy
- Epidural lysis of adhesions
- Intrathecal drug delivery
- Spinal cord stimulation