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Local therapy
Interventional pain procedures
Nerve blocks and neurolysis, where medicines alone are not enough.
Referral & opinion only
What it is
Where pain is severe, localised and not controlled by drugs, or where the dose needed causes unacceptable drowsiness, a targeted procedure on the nerves carrying that pain can help.
A coeliac plexus block for pancreatic pain is the best-known example. These are done under imaging guidance by an interventional pain specialist.
When it is used
- Pain not controlled despite escalating medicines
- Where the dose required causes intolerable sedation or constipation
- Localised pain with a clear nerve territory
- Earlier rather than later, waiting until every drug has failed wastes months
How the decision is made
- Whether the pain has a target a procedure can reach.
- Timing. These are frequently offered far too late, after months of poor control.
- What the procedure does and does not change, stated plainly.
Where it happens
At a partner interventional pain service, usually as a day procedure.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- Pain assessment and a written analgesic plan first
- Referral where a procedure is likely to help
- Medicine adjustment before and after
- Ongoing symptom review, the procedure is not the end of the plan
Performed and billed elsewhere
- The procedure itself
- Imaging guidance and sedation
Safety, read this part
- Do not accept poorly controlled pain as inevitable. If your current plan is not working, that is a reason to be reviewed, not a reason to endure it.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Is my pain a type a procedure could help?
- Why now rather than later?
- What will it change, and for how long?
- What happens to my medicines afterwards?
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.