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Pain Medicine
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Pain is associated with a wide range of injury and disease, and is sometimes the disease itself. Some conditions may have pain and associated symptoms arising from a discrete cause, such as postoperative pain or pain associated with a malignancy, or may be conditions in which pain constitutes the primary problem, such as neuropathic pains or headaches.
Millions suffer from acute or chronic pain every year and the effects of pain exact a tremendous cost on our country in health care costs, rehabilitation and lost worker productivity, as well as the emotional and financial burden it places on patients and their families. The costs of unrelieved pain can result in longer hospital stays, increased rates of rehospitalization, increased outpatient visits, and decreased ability to function fully leading to lost income and insurance coverage. As such, patient's unrelieved chronic pain problems often result in an inability to work and maintain health insurance. Reduced productivity due to pain costs employers somewhere between $60 and $100 billion annually yet NIH barely spends 1% of its funding on research focused primarily on pain.
What is Chronic Pain?
While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap -- sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain -- arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage. Many chronic pain conditions affect older adults. Common chronic pain complaints include headache, low back pain, cancer pain, arthritis pain, neurogenic pain (pain resulting from damage to the peripheral nerves or to the central nervous system itself).
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In the Spotlight this month
Dr. Gary M. Richman
Gary M. Richman, M.D. is Board Certified in both Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology. His area of expertise is treating pain of the neck, back, joints, and extremities using interventional pain management techniques. These include Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Epidural steroid injections, Cervical, Thoracic, and Lumbar Facet Injections, Radiofrequency Lesioning (Rhizotomy), Peripheral Nerve Blocks, Trigger Point Injections, Discography, Spinal Cord Stimulator Trials, Stellate Ganglion Blocks, and Major Joint Injections.
After graduating from Hobart College and S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo School of Medicine, Dr. Richman completed residencies in both Internal Medicine / Pediatrics at S.U.N.Y at Buffalo Affilliated Hospitals, as well as Anesthesiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. In addition, he completed a Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship at St. Christopher's Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. He has practiced Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology in South Florida since 1995.
Dr. Richman is an active member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Florida Society of Anesthesiologists, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, International Spinal Injection Society, Florida Medical Association, and Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology. In addition, he sits on the Board of Directors of the Florida Society of Anesthesiologists and is a Florida Delegate to the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
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Upcoming Lectures from Our Very Own Doctors
here at OCPBC
Presented by:
Gerard D. D'Ariano, M.D.
Spinal Stenosis & Sciatica: Causes & Cures
Tuesday, June 7 - 6:00 pm
JFK Medical Center
Kennedy Conference Center
5301 S. Congress Avenue
Atlantis, Fl
Seating is limited. Reservations required. RSVP to
(800) 654-1046 or (561) 833-1133
Funded by a educational grant from Synthes
FREE EDUCATIONAL
SEMINAR
FREE ADMISSION, VALET PARKING, AND REFRESHMENTS
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Contact Us
Lake Worth Office
4801 South Congress Avenue
Lake Worth, FL 33461
Phone:
561.967.6500
Fax:
561.433.4175
VIEW MAP
Boynton Beach Office
6056 Boynton Beach Blvd
Suite 215
Boynton Beach, FL 33437
Phone:
561.967.6500
Fax:
561.963.7023
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TOLL FREE
1-800-633-5783
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