For some patients, the pain that naturally comes from having surgery fails to improve and becomes a chronic problem. If you’re experiencing postsurgical pain, the experts at California Pain Medicine Center in Santa Monica, California, can help. They work with surgical teams in plastics, orthopedics, and other specialties to reduce and relieve postsurgical pain. Find out how they can help you by calling California Pain Medicine Center today or by booking an appointment online.
Pain is inevitable following surgery, as even the most minimally invasive procedures result in some level of tissue damage. Typically, your surgical team keeps pain under control using anesthetics during your operation, and you take pain-relieving medications until you heal and the pain naturally goes away.
For some patients, postsurgical pain is more severe or persists beyond the expected healing period. This may be due to heightened sensitivity or result from nerve damage that occurs during the surgery.
Some procedures carry an increased risk of causing abnormal postsurgical pain from nerve damage. These include:
The surgeons carrying out your surgery always take great care to avoid nerve damage, but there’s still a possibility you might experience this problem.
Another possible cause of postsurgical pain is that the surgery hasn’t resolved the issue that led to the procedure in the first place. Or you could develop pain from slightly misaligned artificial joints or other faulty implants.
The first step in addressing postsurgical pain is to undergo an exam and diagnostic imaging tests to see if there’s something specific causing the pain. It could be that you need to have further surgery, for example.
If there’s no identifiable cause for your pain or nothing that your surgeon can treat, the California Pain Medicine Center team works with them and you to manage your pain. The team also helps patients who are experiencing post-operative pain problems like failed back surgery syndrome.
The California Pain Medicine Center team works in collaboration to create a personalized treatment program for you. Their multidisciplinary approach might include treatments such as:
The specific treatments you need for postsurgical pain depend on the nature of your condition and its location. Sometimes you might need to try different combinations of treatments to find the one that’s most effective for you.
For help with relief from postsurgical pain, call California Pain Medicine Center today or book an appointment online.
