Our Philosophy
Interventional Pain Management is more than a series of procedures and techniques, it is a coherent philosophy – a way of meticulously approaching an individual’s clinical pain problem, identifying the precise anatomic basis that causes your pain and choosing appropriate techniques, medications or surgeries to help. While we do not offer long-term opiate or cannabis-based medication management, we are open to caring for patients that have had limited success with such treatments.
We diagnose and treat headaches, pain in the neck and thorax, shoulder pain, low back pain, buttock and hip pain including sciatica and radiculopathies. We can resolve many of these, referring to colleagues in orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery with precise and intelligent recommendations for further care, as may be necessary. When conservative care is appropriate, we coordinate your care with physical therapists and chiropractors.
Every patient’s MRI and CT scan is important and we ask that you please bring the CD-ROM’s of all MRI’s and CT scans to your appointment so that the images may be reviewed personally. Diagnostic injections, performed under fluoroscopic guidance (real-time x-ray), allow evaluation of specific anatomic abnormalities or suspected injuries to affirm, deny or in many cases, resolve the pain. Precise nerve lesioning using radiofrequency (RF) electrical energy can be used to treat painful joints in the spine, the sacroiliac joints, hip, knee or shoulder. Nerves can be stimulated electrically within the spine or extremities to reduce pain dramatically, especially important after injuries or prior spinal surgery.
If you have chronic headache, neck, back or joint pain or suffer from injuries related to an accident or fall and honestly want to live your life with less pain, please contact us to explore what can be done to help. We do not see children younger than 15 years of age, except upon referral from a pediatrician or surgeon. Many patient diagnosed with “Fibromyalgia” and previously advised that they had a chronic and hopeless painful illness are often surprised that the cause of their pain are neither elusive nor irreparable.
Minimally invasive technologies have improved treatment for spinal stenosis and herniated discs. Endoscopic spine surgery allows treatment of pinched lumbar spine nerves or disc herniation in an outpatient surgical center where in less than an hour using local anesthesia and sedation, it is expectable to accomplish what would formerly require several hours of open surgery involving general anesthesia and an overnight hospital stay; lumbar fusion surgery can often be avoided entirely. Costs are much lower than for conventional surgery. Risk of infection is 40% lower, return to work is far faster, less blood is lost and postoperative pain is greatly reduced. We offer interspinous spacer for recurrent spinal stenosis and minimally invasive fusion for intractable sacroiliac joint pain.
Extensive data and research show opiate medications to be of benefit only in limited acute or post-operative pain treatment with little benefit and outsize risks when used for chronic pain or headache treatment. We will not prescribe long-term opiates including Suboxone. If you are on long term opiate medication, we will evaluate you in consultation to explore options to treat your pain so you can be tapered off of opiate medications.
While interventional anesthesiology is a surgical subspecialty practice, we remember that our patients are not their pain, they are human beings to be treated respectfully. We try to understand how your pain affects your life, your job and your family, and to be realistic about your goals with practical advice on what you may expect. Call us and see!
Meet Our Staff
Dr. Jeffrey Petersohn
Hahnemann University School of Medicine
M.D. 1984
Hahnemann University Hospital
Intern, Internal Medicine 1984-1985
Resident, Internal Medicine 1985-1986
Resident, Anesthesiology 1986-1987
Academic Appointments
Clinical Associate Professor- Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine
As a former Clinical Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Drexel University for 10 years, Dr. Petersohn trained residents and pain fellows and taught dozens of post-graduate continuing medical education courses. As the author of a number of papers and textbook chapters, he is a frequent speaker at national and regional pain meetings.
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