Post-Traumatic Pain Management and Treatment

Physical trauma is any severe injury to your body. After a traumatic injury, some people feel a lot of pain for days, months, and even years after healing the initial injury. It is a painful condition and is called post-traumatic pain. One of the symptoms of post-traumatic pain is lingering, sharp and burning pains and decreased mobility. The pain is persistent and mainly occurs when you attempt to walk or engage in a bit of exercise. But how do you deal with post-traumatic pain?

 

Post-Traumatic Pain Diagnosis

Since the nervous system consists of millions of nerves throughout the human body, post-traumatic pain can result from any of these nerves being affected by various types of trauma.

The diagnosis of post-traumatic pain is based primarily on physical exams and the patients' medical history.

These diagnosis procedures can provide essential clues and improvement to your health.

The peripheral nerve blocks: the procedure attempts to block the suspect cause and trigger of the chronic pain to determine which nerve may need to be addressed to resolve the symptoms.

Sympathetic nervous system tests: The tests look for any disturbances in the systematic nervous system, such as skin temperature and blood flow in the affected and unaffected limbs.

X-rays: The test is done to determine if there is a loss of minerals from the bone.

Bone scan: The procedure is carried out to determine and detect bone changes. A radioactive substance is injected into a vein to help in the view of bones with the help of a particular camera.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): Images emerging from an MRI may show tissue changes.

 

Post Traumatic pain treatment

Treatment for post-traumatic pain is most effective when started earlier in the course of the illness. Some of the medications and therapies for post-traumatic pain are;

Antidepressants and anticonvulsants: The medication treats chronic pain from a damaged nerve.

 

Pain relievers: Over-the-counter pain relievers such as aspirin may ease pain and inflammation.

 

Corticosteroids: Steroid medication like prednisone can help reduce inflammation and improve mobility and efficiency in the affected limb.

 

Physical therapy: Gentle, guided exercising of the affected areas can help decrease pain and improves strength and range of motion. Exercises tend to be more effective where the disease is diagnosed earlier.

 

Spinal cord stimulation: A small electrical current is delivered to the spinal cord via tiny electrodes along the spinal cord. This helps in relieving chronic post-traumatic pain.

 

The specific treatment for post-traumatic pain depends on each patient and their unique situation.

 

Sources:

1. https://www.baltimoreperipheralnervepain.com/practice_areas/post-traumatic-pain-dysfunction.cfm

2. https://www.facs.org/media/exob3dwk/acute_pain_guidelines.pdf

3. https://halberdbastion.com/resources/academic/rf-parameters/cross-polar-discrimination-xpd

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