HEALTH
No one should live with chronic pain! Dr. Maher El-Khatib, Pain Management Specialist at Ortho Rhode Island, offers a wide variety of options to treat your pain – pain from the top of your head, down to the bottom of your feet!
We Start by Listening
The first step in creating a personalized pain management plan is to speak with Dr. El-Khatib, who will listen, ask questions, examine you and potentially order tests or imaging studies. We need to figure out why you are having pain, to understand your symptoms and understand your condition.
What is Chronic Pain?
Millions of adults in America experience chronic pain, or pain that lasts longer than three months. Chronic pain can be debilitating, restricting daily work and life activities. The time when chronic pain begins to restrict daily life is a critical time. Taking steps to treat chronic pain early can make a meaningful impact on your life.
How We Help Manage Your Pain
The field of Pain Management has grown in recent years, giving patients more options to try to control their pain. Dr. El-Khatib will assess your pain and work with you to develop a unique pain management plan. Dr. El-Khatib will work with you, every step of the way, evaluating your pain relief and will make adjustments or try new interventions to help effectively manage your pain.
Injections
Pain management injections can be used to treat a wide variety of orthopedic or neurological conditions or injuries and can help to avoid surgery. Epidural steroid injects are commonly used for neck pain, upper back or lower back pain. Inflamed nerves can be treated with a nerve block, where anesthetic is injected close to a nerve to interrupt your pain. Trigger point injections can relax muscles that are causing pain. When joints are inflamed and causing pain, joint injections may be recommended.
Minimally invasive procedures
Below are some examples of minimally invasive, outpatient procedures we offer at our Surgery Center in Warwick. They typically have no recovery time, are done under monitored anesthesia care and can help you avoid surgery.
Spinal Cord Stimulators
A spinal cord stimulator is a small implanted device that sends low level electric impulses directly into the spinal cord to relieve pain. A spinal cord stimulator may be considered by patients when other therapies and nonsurgical options have not provided sufficient relief.
If Dr. El-Khatib recommends a spinal cord stimulator for you, he will give you a trial stimulator. A trial procedure involves placing two electrodes around your spine using needles. If the trial is successful, then we place the permanent stimulator by minor surgery.
MILD Procedure
Patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) may benefit from a “MILD” (Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression) procedure. The MILD procedure involves lumbar decompression through a very small incision.
If you have pain or numbness in your lower back when standing or pain, numbness or tingling in your legs or buttocks when walking and you feel relief when sitting or leaning over, you may have lumbar spinal stenosis.
Intracept
Patients with chronic lower back pain where the pain is worse with sitting, bending, lifting or activity, may experience lasting pain relief from the “Itracept” procedure. The procedure of applying a radiofrequency probe into the center of the vertebrae through a small incision interrupts the transmission of pain signals and provides pain relief.
Radiofrequency Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation can be used to treat a range of conditions such as tumors as well as back, shoulder, hips, knees or neck pain. Electricity is used to heat the nerves that are causing the pain, providing relief.
If you are experiencing chronic pain, we are here to help. Don’t wait another day, contact us to make an appointment.
Call us at 401-777-7000 or request an appointment here
