«Chronic pain is often treated with morphine preparations. However, at some point these drugs no longer work - patients get used to them.»
Dr Przemyslaw Strulak, Deputy Head of Pain Medicine
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17. March 2020
Electricity, heat or cold - targeted help against pain
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Anyone suffering from chronic pain has a difficult everyday life. At Bethesda Hospital, pain patients find a competent team that combats pain surgically, but just as often with conservative treatments.
Pain is part of our everyday lives and reminds us to be careful: reaching onto the hob or into water that's too hot; a cut when preparing vegetables; the sudden pain in the knee area that we suffer when doing sport: Warning signals that we experience in varying degrees of intensity - from unpleasant to unbearable.
Chronic pain, on the other hand, has lost its character as a warning signal and is a disease in its own right. Take back pain, for example. It is a widespread disease. It affects 79 per cent of the population. Around 45 per cent of all absences from work are related to complaints in the musculoskeletal system, especially the back. The causes of back pain are varied and range from muscle tension and blockages to wear and tear of the spine, bone loss or even curvature of the spine.
Dr Przemyslaw Strulak, Deputy Head of Pain Medicine
Success with heat or cold treatment
Pioneering alternatives used at Bethesda Hospital include heat or cold treatments. Or "we try to relieve the pain directly where it occurs by injecting anti-inflammatory agents". The medication is administered directly into the area of pain. This so-called infiltration is used to treat back pain. This is often caused by the increasing wear and tear of the intervertebral discs and joints in the spine. This causes pressure on the nerves and nerve roots, which can lead to inflammation and swelling of the nerves and surrounding tissue.
The aim of infiltration is to break the vicious circle and thus provide long-term pain relief. Peripheral infiltrations, cold or heat treatments "are a highly effective alternative to surgical procedures in certain cases," emphasises the pain specialist.
«Cold or heat treatments are a highly effective alternative to surgical procedures in certain cases»
Dr Przemyslaw Strulak, Deputy Head of Pain Medicine
Innovative technology for pain relief
Pacemakers for pain have been available for some time now. According to Dr Strulak, neurostimulation is "a great way" to provide relief from chronic pain.
The small receiver of the stimulator is implanted under the skin and controlled with a small remote control. The patient uses it to control the intensity of the current that the electrodes deliver to the area of pain. In this way, the pain can be reduced or even eliminated. In the near future, the electrostimulators could even be used to treat obsessive-compulsive neurosis or Parkinson's disease. The researchers will publish a software update for this purpose, which is due to be launched on the market in 2020.
According to the pain specialist, it is important that an interdisciplinary team of specialists in surgery and conservative therapy, as is the case at Bethesda Hospital, finds the ideal form of therapy for each patient.