Being the first pain clinic located in a private hospital in Turkey, the Pain Clinic of American Hospital has been admitting patients since 1999. Although Algology is a fairly new area of medicine, the Pain Clinic was established within the Anesthesiology and Reanimation Department and has been rendering healthcare services around the clock with three permanent physicians and experienced nurses with field-specific training. The services rendered differ depending on each patient’s level of acute or chronic pain syndrome. Treatments are supported by up-to-date innovative technology.
The type of pain which should be taken seriously but is mostly ignored by the patient can be alleviated with extremely successful contemporary treatment methods practiced at our pain clinic. Our physicians remark when referring to their patients that “they do not have to live with pain”.
Major examples of chronic pain syndromes that respond to interventional pain therapy are headaches, low back pain and neck pain, cancer pain, complex regional pain syndromes, vascular pains (pain secondary to the problems encountered in blood vessels) and neuropathic pain syndromes.
Treatments to alleviate pain available at the Pain Clinic of American Hospital are divided into two categories, namely “Acute Pain” treatments and “Chronic Pain” treatments; up-to-date technology is employed to treat both aforementioned pain categories.
At the Acute Pain Unit, the relevant anesthesiologist, pain nurse, and pain specialist work in cooperation to manage postoperative pain that accounts for a large part of acute pain. The anesthesiologist deals with the pain before, during and after the surgery along with other problems the patient may be experiencing. Pain nurses visit each patient every day, check patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) devices, keep the relevant data, join the pain specialist for patient visits and communicate with surgeons and inpatient clinic nurses to solve any and all potential problems. The pain specialist is responsible for coordinating acute pain treatments throughout the hospital and for organizing education in this field. Moreover, she/he helps the relevant anesthesiologist with invasive procedures that require specialization.
Invasive pain treatments are successfully performed at the Chronic Pain Unit thanks to advancements in science and technology. Modern pain management methods may temporarily or permanently suppress the transmission of pain signals and increase the quality of life in many pain syndromes. Interventional pain management is a procedure that suppresses the generation or transmission of pain signals in order to eliminate or control pain. The transmission of each pain signal to the central nervous systems is disrupted by injecting medicine at target points or placement of special devices in the body (spinal cord stimulator, opioid port – pump system).
We have showcased said treatment methods, which we use to effectively manage pain since 1999, at local and international congresses. Accordingly, studies carried out by the Pain Clinic of American Hospital are regarded by the medical community as significant reference practices for various top universities in Turkey.
The Pain Clinic of American Hospital is proud to be the first clinic of its kind to employ many significant treatments in Turkey such as stabilizing compression fractures in the spine (Vertebroplasty), the procedure that allows the controlled delivery of heat to the intervertebral disc (Intradiscal Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation) and the prevention of excessive sweating in hands and feet.
After an interventional treatment is performed, patients are referred to the Pain Clinic by experienced physicians in Neurosurgery, Neurology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Orthopedics and Traumatology, Oncology, and General Surgery departments.