A to Z of services

Chronic Pain

The department provides a pain management service for chronic pain patients and accepts referrals from GPs if patients are unable to control their pain.

Those with severe acute pain are not seen in this clinic and need to be referred to A&E.

Patients without an established diagnosis cannot be seen by the acute pain team.

Our team offers:

• Pain consultation
• Rationalising analgesic therapy.
• Pain interventions

Conditions Treated:

Back pain and Neck pain. Sciatica. Neuropathic pain.  Post Herpetic Neuralgia. Pelvic pain.  Shoulder pain /impingement. Complex regional pain syndrome. Myofascial pain. Persistent pain after surgery. Phantom Limb Pain. Whiplash associated disorder.

Procedures Performed:

Therapeutic Cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral epidural injection. Facet joint injections. Spinal nerve root block. Radiofrequency denervation for long term pain relief. Epiduroplasty/ epidural adhesiolysis. Sympathetic nerve blocks. Trigger point. Greater occipital nerve injection for migraine. Lidocaine infusion for persistent neuropathic pain.

Inpatient Management

People in hospital can receive help in managing their pain from the inpatient management team. This consists of two consultants and a pain nurse, pain advice is given, complex patients are seen and trainees and nurses are taught about pain management.

If you are coming into hospital one of the things you may be worried about is pain. You can expect some pain after an operation or some procedures and illnesses but the pain team aim to get this to an acceptable level.

We want your treatment to be as comfortable and pain free as possible because:

• You will be happier
• You will be up and about quicker
• Respiratory complications (problems with your lungs and breathing) will be fewer
• You will return to normal activity sooner

What we use to treat your pain depends on many things including the operation or illness you have, your previous experiences and how you respond to treatment.

The team at Croydon University Hospital is there to help you control any pain you may have while you are in hospital. If there is any problem with your pain control your nurse will contact the Inpatient Pain Team.

If you are coming in for a planned operation, you can discuss pain control with the nurses in the preoperative clinic and on the ward. After your operation your nurse on the ward will ask you about pain and give you the treatment you need to make you comfortable.

Although we fit the treatment to your individual needs there are a range of methods that we can use. Pain relief is often a combination of different things including:

• Taking regular painkillers by mouth
• Using patient controlled analgesia (PCA)
• Epidural injections for pain