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Chronic Pain Management Program

Pain Treatment can help restore your quality of life. We can help you manage your chronic pain and return to a more functional life with greater ability to enjoy some activities We offer and coordinate a wide variety of treatment plans for painful conditions such as:

  • Back & neck pain
  • Sciatic pain
  • Cancer pain
  • Headaches & migraines
  • Pain related to shingles (post-herpetic neuralgia)
  • Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS/ RSD)
  • Facial pain

Treatment of pain, both acute and chronic, often requires a coordinated medical team. Through our program & our partners in the community, we can help coordinate a variety of treatment plans for you in Tucson & throughout Southern Arizona including:

  • Physical therapy
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Interventional pain management
  • Surgery for chronic pain
  • Stereotactic radiosurgery
  • Medical management

Acute Pain & Surgical Pain

Acute pain is pain from tissue injury and can last up to three (3) months. Surgical pain is from surgery (incisional pain) and resolves as healing takes place. This process can also take up to three months. Our goal in managing your acute/ surgical pain is to improve mobility, aid recovery and foster proper healing. Narcotic/ opioid medications can be used in the acute/surgical pain period to achieve these goals. These medications come in both immediate release & extended release forms and both may be used to treat acute pain. Narcotics should not be continued beyond the acute phase because of significant side effects. Our policy is to wean off narcotics as soon as possible or to transition to Non-opioid pain medicines if pain persists. If you are on long term Narcotic therapy prior to our treatment program, our goal is to return you to your baseline regimen and the care of your Pain Medicine provider. If Narcotic therapy is indicated beyond the acute phase, a referral to a Pain Medicine specialist will be provided. Because of changing regulations regarding Chronic Narcotic Therapy, it is not our practice’s policy to prescribe chronic narcotic therapies. Narcotic Pain Medicine Contracts are mandatory for all patients in our practice who receive prescriptions for any narcotic medications. Our practice participates in both state & federal narcotic monitoring programs. Prescriptions will be refilled Monday –Friday 9-5. Please call ahead 48-72hrs for refills. No prescriptions will be refilled after hours or on weekends. Other controlled substance may be subject to similar policies.

Chronic Narcotic Pain Medications & Surgical Pain Management

Our practice has extensive experience in Surgical Pain management, ranging from multilevel spinal fusions to spinal cord stimulation. We recognize that many of our patients are already on Chronic Narcotic/Opioid therapies prior to our practice and we can discuss your current regimen with you. It is not our policy to change, increase or take over Chronic Narcotic Therapies. If a change in your current regimen is indicated, we can make recommendations to your Pain Medicine Specialist who can then modify your medications if needed. This policy ensures safety and proper monitoring for narcotics in accordance with state & federal regulations. If an acute/ surgical pain treatment is needed in addition to your chronic regimen, we will coordinate directly with your Pain Medicine Specialist. If you do not have a Pain Medicine Specialist, a referral will be provided to you. Please refer to our Acute/ Surgical pain policy above.

Surgery for Chronic Pain

Dr. Joseph Christiano and Dr. Samuel Kim, colleagues at Western Neuro, have specialty training in a number of surgical treatments for conditions that cause chronic pain. We offer a variety of surgical therapies such as: