Advanced Interventional Pain Management
Interventional Pain Management Specialists located in Hot Springs, AR & Little Rock, AR
Arthritis has a distinctive quality that causes a raw, throbbing pain in the affected joints from which there’s often no escape. If you’re finding life hard because of your arthritis, pain management specialists Jacob Abraham, MD, and Ryan Stuckey, MD, of Advanced Interventional Pain Management can help. The practice has offices in Hot Springs, Little Rock, Texarkana, El Dorado, Arkadelphia, and Mena, Arkansas, where the dedicated team provides a range of advanced treatments to relieve your pain and improve your mobility. Call the office nearest you today or book your appointment online.
Arthritis Q & A
What is arthritis?
Arthritis is a joint disease whose main symptoms are chronic pain and stiffness. Arthritis comes in more than 100 types, although some forms are uncommon.
Each type develops in one or more joints because of the loss of cartilage — the protective coating on your bones that stops them rubbing against one another — or the presence of inflammation in the joints.
Septic arthritis, gout, and psoriatic arthritis are forms of the disease that are quite widespread. However, the ones you’re most likely to encounter are osteoarthritis, a wear-and-tear disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder.
What are the symptoms of arthritis?
Joint pain is common to all forms of arthritis, but each type can cause its own additional problems. For instance, gout tends to affect your feet and causes intermittent periods of intense pain. Psoriatic arthritis causes severe skin problems as well as affecting your joints.
The pain can also vary. Sometimes it may be more of a background ache, while a flare-up can cause excruciating, throbbing pain. Your joints are likely to become progressively stiffer and weaker, and many types of arthritis lead to joint distortion.
As the condition worsens, arthritis causes increasing disability and can leave you unable to walk unaided. You might struggle to perform simple everyday tasks like brushing your hair or unscrewing a bottle top.
How is arthritis treated?
Currently, there’s no treatment to cure arthritis. However, the Advanced Interventional Pain Management team can provide effective therapies to ease pain and improve joint function.
Some of the treatments Dr. Abraham and Dr. Stuckey provide include:
- Painkilling medication
- Anti-inflammatories
- Physical therapy
- Hyaluronic acid injections (viscosupplementation)
- Peripheral nerve block injections
- Sacroiliac injections
- Steroid injections
It’s also important to adopt healthier habits in your life, including eating a balanced diet, quitting smoking, cutting back on alcohol, and avoiding stress. Losing weight if you’re overweight or obese takes considerable strain off your joints too.
While you might think you’re better off avoiding exercise, it’s vital to keep moving to prevent your muscles from weakening and connective tissues shortening. Immobility accelerates the progress of the disease, but regular, gentle exercise can keep you functioning for longer.
Advanced Interventional Pain Management also offers radiofrequency sacroiliac joint nerve ablation. This procedure involves having an injection into the sacroiliac joint in your pelvis. The treatment uses radiofrequency energy to stop the nerves from sending pain signals to your brain.
Dr. Abraham and Dr. Stuckey use ultrasound technology to guide them when administering joint injections. This ensures that the needle doesn’t cause any harm to surrounding tissues and that the treatment reaches the precise spot where it can do the most good.
Find out how to get relief from the agony of arthritis by calling Advanced Interventional Pain Management today or book an appointment online.