For some people, it’s constant. For others, it comes and goes. Either way, it can keep them awake at night, interfere with the ability to function at work, cause them to withdraw from family and friends, and drain all the joy from life. We’re talking about chronic pain, a condition suffered by an estimated 116 million people in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health, chronic pain is responsible for up to $635 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity.
The Interventional Pain Institute, with locations in Frontenac and Festus, is a comprehensive pain medicine clinic with a multidisciplinary approach. “We work closely with other specialists to coordinate individually designed treatment plans for each patient,” says institute founder and medical director Dr. Ramis Gheith. “We treat the source of pain, return patients to a functional and productive lifestyle, and promote healthy activities and preventive care. And we do it in the most cost-effective way possible, minimizing reliance on health care resources.”
An anesthesiologist who is fellowship trained at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and board-certified in pain medicine, Gheith established the institute in 2010. “Pain can be difficult to control and impossible to cure,” he explains. “Pain management is designed to minimize the impact of extreme discomfort on a patient’s life. If we can’t completely eliminate it, we can make it more tolerable.” Appropriate treatment can help reduce pain associated with a wide range of causes, such as spinal issues, post-surgical problems, nerve pain, migraine headaches, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, whiplash, and cancer or cancer treatment. “The ultimate goal is always the same: to help the patient enjoy a better quality of life.”
Pain management draws specialists from many areas of medicine. “We work closely with other health care professionals, including neurologists, orthopedic and spine surgeons, oncologists, physical therapists and psychologists, creating a specific plan for every patient,” Gheith says. Institute experts rely on a variety of methods to treat chronic pain, including traditional strategies like physical therapy, exercise, lifestyle changes, psychological coping strategies, injections and medication management. “We also use more advanced methods when appropriate, including radio frequency ablation, which uses radio waves to relieve pain, and neuromodulation therapy, a spinal cord stimulator implant that uses electrical stimulation to suppress severe nerve pain,” he notes. “Depending on the situation, we’ll use a combination of approaches to achieve the optimal level of care, tailoring treatment to individual needs.”
Gheith recalls a 37-year-old mother of three who could barely function after an unsuccessful spinal procedure left her with severe pain in her lower back and legs. “Like so many others, she came to us crippled by pain and reliant on debilitating medications,” he says. “Thanks to a spinal cord stimulator implant, she’s now free of pain and no longer depends on medication. There’s nothing more gratifying than to relieve suffering, restore mobility, and help give people their lives back. That’s why my team and I do what we do.”
[Interventional Pain Institute is located at 10435 Clayton Road, Ste. 120, in Frontenac, and at 1405 N. Truman Blvd. in Festus. For more information, call 636.933.2243 or visit manageyourpainnow.com.]
Pictured: Dr. Ramis Gheith
Photo courtesy of Interventional Pain Institute
