Evidence-Based Interventional Pain Practice: According to Clinical Diagnoses

Unrelieved chronic pain is a worldwide epidemic

Chronic pain has been subject to multiple international initiatives through the World Health Organization. Interventional Pain Medicine, the use of minimally invasive techniques to relieve pain, is the best approach when simpler measures such as physical therapy or medications fail. However, these procedures can be associated with significant risk and expense. Establishing uniformity in diagnostic criteria and procedural performance can reduce both morbidity and unnecessary procedures, and hence healthcare expenditures.

While other texts explain how to perform these procedures, little focus has been given to diagnostic considerations: if and when these procedures should be performed. Evidence-Based Interventional Pain Medicine focuses on a balance between effectiveness and safety of interventional management for specific diagnoses, across all areas of chronic pain including:

• Head, neck and shoulder pain
• Lower back pain
• Neuropathic pain syndromes
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
• Pain in patients with cancer
• Vascular and visceral pain

Evidence-Based Interventional Pain Medicine provides essential knowledge for anyone who uses, or intends to use, interventional pain techniques.

Jan Van Zundert MD, PhD, FIPP
Anesthesiologist, Department of Anesthesiology and Multidisciplinary Pain Centre, Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, Genk, Belgium.

Jacob Patijn MD, PhD
Neurologist, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Maastricht University Pain Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Craig T. Hartrick MD, DABPM, FIPP
Anesthesiologist, Departments of Anesthesiology, Biomedical Sciences, and Health Sciences, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Rochester, MI, USA.

Arno Lataster MSc
Anatomist, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Frank J.P.M. Huygen MD, PhD, FIPP
Anesthesiologist, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Nagy Mekhail MD, PhD, FIPP
Carl E. Wasmuth Professor and Chair, Department of Pain Management, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Maarten Van Kleef MD, PhD, FIPP
Neurologist, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.