Nadeem Ahsan, MD, is director of the Einstein Pain Institute and clinical assistant professor of Anesthesiology and Interventional Pain at Jefferson Medical College. He is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of evidence-based, guideline-driven patient care plans, which includes utilizing advanced treatment approaches for a wide range of chronic pain conditions, including axial-spine pain (localized pain) and radicular pain (pain that radiates into a lower extremity), repetitive stress disorders, headaches, neuropathies and complex regional pain syndromes. He is a five-time Philadelphia Magazine Top Doc.

What is interventional pain management? A lot of people might assume the approach just consists of medication.

Dr. Ahsan: Typically it’s for patients whose pain hasn’t been brought under control with conventional treatment options, such as medications, physical therapy and surgery, who are referred to an interventional pain specialist.

Interventional pain management is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of pain-related disorders, principally with interventional techniques in managing sub-acute, chronic, persistent, and intractable (severe and constant) pain, independently or in conjunction with other types of treatment.

Interventional pain management techniques consist of X-ray-guided minimally invasive procedures with placement of drugs in targeted areas or removal of targeted nerves. We also use state-of-the-art surgical techniques such as laser or endoscopic discectomy (surgical removal of part or all of a disc), intrathecal infusion pumps (injection of pain-killing drugs into the space surrounding the spinal cord) and spinal cord stimulators (which send a mild electrical current to the spinal cord, blocking the pain), for the diagnosis and management of chronic, persistent, or intractable pain.

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