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Since its opening in 1994, AMC Pain Clinic treated more than 30,000 outpatients, and more than 1,500 patients referred from wards. Also, the clinic performed more than 5,000 interventional procedures per year. The clinic deals with cancer-related pain and neuropathic pain such as herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome as well as diverse joint diseases including muscular skeletal disease, spinal diseases, and degenerative arthritis.
The Pain Clinic plays a leading role in the treatment, research, and education of chronic pain and spinal disorders such as herniated intervertebral disc and spinal stenosis. The clinic has also developed the nerve block in the knee joint and balloon catheters for the first time in the world, providing various therapies for patients suffering from chronic pain.
Treatment options
Herniated Intervertebral Disc
Intervertebral disc is a disc that connects vertebrae and acts as a shock absorber when weighing. The nucleus pulposus that bulges out through a crack in the annulus fibrosis due to degenerative changes and trauma presses on the nerves around the disc and stimulates the nerves with an inflammatory response. This condition is called a herniated intervertebral disc. The protruding disc presses on the nerves inside the spine, causing lower back pain and radiating pain to the lower extremities, paresthesia, numbness, and muscular weakness. Most patients get better within several weeks or months without the need of surgery. Sometimes, the quality of life or productivity in workplace falls due to severe pain and sciatic neuralgia, and it may lead to chronic pain.
1) Kinesitherapy and Medication
Exercise improves the strength of waist muscles to lessen physical pressure on a disc while drug therapy alleviates spinal pain, sciatic neuralgia, and inflammation around the nerves.
2) Nerve block
Nerve block relieves pain by injecting steroid which is a potent anti-inflammatory agent and a local anesthetic into the epidural space or around the nerve root. It is used when exercise and medication are not effective in mitigating symptoms.
3) Neuroplasty
If epidural adhesion and fibrosis occurred due to exacerbated inflammation in the herniated disc, an epidural steroid injection is ineffective. In this case, epidural neuroplasty which is also called epidural adhesiolysis treatment will be held.
- Balloon Catheters
AMC Pain Clinic uses the world's first balloon catheter to induce the detachment of epidural adhesion and the reduction of pressure on the nerve root more effectively than conventional epidural neuroplasty, thereby maximizing the effect of epidural steroid injection. Numerous studies reported that the balloon catheters are effective in pain relief and functional improvement. Moreover, as more medical devices such as transforaminal balloon catheters and coccygeal balloon catheters have been developed, the most suitable device for each patient is used to produce best results.
If a nociceptor-like the sinuvertebral nerve grows in the prolapsed nucleus pulposus and the ripped annulus fibrosus, it causes central back pain which is hardly treated with conventional interventional therapies. This technique burns out pain nerves like the sinuvertebral nerve with a laser to remove the prolapsed nucleus pulposus, significantly relieving pain.
AMC's treatment performance
More than 30,000 outpatients per year
More than 1,500 patients referred by wards per year
More than 5,000 interventional procedures per year
