Anesthesiology and Pain Unit is a more or less new medical specialty. Specialist physicians are in charge of providing more safety in the whole surgical process: from before the surgery, during it and in the patient’s recovery. In this way, they minimize the risks that may occur and provide the highest possible quality of medical care.
The anesthesiologist as chronic pain specialist
Although not all anesthesiology specialists do so, some of them are also dedicated to chronic pain management as a whole.
Anesthesiologists, increasingly protagonists in the treatment of pain of extra-surgical causes
The treatment of pain must be multidisciplinary and the anesthesiologist pain therapist provides a global vision. Treating the non-surgical patient is becoming increasingly important. For example, it is estimated that 80% of people will have low back pain during their lifetime. Likewise, older patients will suffer from peripheral and spinal osteoarthritis, which is very painful. On the other hand, cancer patients deserve a good quality of life and to improve their pain, neuropathic pain, etc. All this can be addressed from the Pain Unit, allowing patients to live with maximum normality.
What is the difference between acute pain and chronic pain?
The main difference between the two pains is their duration. A margin of 6 months is established to define a pain as chronic. However, it is not necessary to wait that long to start treating such pain. Patients should not have to endure the pain. Acute pain should be treated and, in pain that will presumably tend to become chronic, the results are better if treatment is applied early.
Treatments for pain
Since the first pain units were created in the 1950s, a large therapeutic arsenal has been developed. Depending on the type of pain suffered by the patient, there are different possibilities. Thus, there are medications that act by different routes and specific techniques have also been developed, such as infiltrations, intrathecal infusions of medication, neurostimulation… All of them treat pain in a more specific way.
What types of pain can be treated?
There are basically three types of pain: somatic, neuropathic and mixed. All of them can be improved with the right treatment and implemented at the right time.
How has the treatment and elimination of pain improved?
All treatments have improved tremendously. Currently available drugs and non-pharmacological therapies such as rehabilitation, invasive techniques or physiotherapy greatly improve the quality of life of patients.
In the pain units they help patients in a real way, trying to achieve the best results so that they can lead their lives as normally as possible.