Cancer Pain
Significant pain accompanies the diagnosis of cancer in two-thirds of the cases. Abdominal and pelvic pain associated with cancer are particularly difficult to treat. Even when drug therapy is optimally applied, 10% to 30% of these patients have inadequately controlled pain.

Chronic Pain
Untreated chronic pain in our country is at epidemic proportions. Chronic pain is pain that goes on longer than six months. It does not respond to conventional medical treatment. Chronic pain is pain that may not go away. What's more, chronic pain often has no concrete explanation and no tangible diagnosis. That does not mean that chronic pain is not real. It simply means that, using the information available today, modern medical specialists cannot define a "cause" for the pain. Chronic pain is pain that many people have to "learn to live with."

Cervical Pain
We see patients with cervical facet joint disease following a whiplash injury, which may contribute to head and neck pain. Occipital neuralgia, tension headaches, migraines, post-craniotomy headache, retro-orbital pain, and cervical disc disease can also cause cervical, or neck, pain.

Neuropathy
Neuropathy refers to a variety of diseases that affect the nervous system. The most common type of neuropathy is called peripheral neuropathy, which describes damage to the peripheral nervous system, the vast communications network that transmits information from the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system) to every other part of the body.

Symptoms of neuropathy are related to the type of affected nerve and may be seen over a period of days, weeks, or years. Muscle weakness is the most common symptom of motor nerve damage. Other symptoms may include painful cramps and uncontrolled muscle twitching visible under the skin, muscle loss, bone degeneration, and changes in the skin, hair, and nails.

Sciatica, Pinched Nerves
Sciatica is pain, tingling, or numbness produced by an irritation of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is formed by the nerve roots coming out of the spinal cord into the lower back. Branches of the sciatic nerve extend through the buttocks and down the back of each leg to the ankle and foot.

Shingles & Post Herpetic Neuralgia
Shingles (herpes zoster) is a viral infection of the nerve roots. It causes pain and a band of rash that spreads on one side of your body. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. Once you've had chickenpox, the virus lies dormant (inactive) in your nerve roots. If it becomes active again, it causes shingles, not another case of chickenpox.

Neuralgia, as the name suggests, is nerve pain that occurs when a nerve is irritated or inflamed. The pain spreads along neural pathways, may be fleeting or chronic, and can range from mild to outright unbearable.

A relatively common type of neuralgia is post-herpetic neuralgia, which strikes after the type of herpes infection known as shingles. Typically, people with this form of neuralgia experience a continuous burning sensation.

Spinal Stenosis
Spinal stenosis is narrowing of the spinal canal that occurs when excessive growth of bone and/or tissue reduces the size of the openings in the spinal bones. This narrowing can squeeze and irritate the nerve roots that branch out from the spinal cord, or it can squeeze and irritate the spinal cord itself. This may cause pain, numbness, or weakness, most often in the legs, feet, and buttocks. Severe disability is not common.

Spinal stenosis occurs most often in the lower back (lumbar) area. When it does occur in the neck (cervical) area, the spinal cord may become squeezed, which if untreated can lead to nerve damage and paralysis

Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that causes widespread pain and tenderness in the muscles and soft tissue as well as sleep problems, fatigue, and a variety of other symptoms. These problems can be severe enough to disrupt a person's work and daily activities.

Arthritis
Arthritis is a general term for a group of more than 100 diseases. The word "arthritis" means "joint inflammation." Inflammation is one of the body's natural reactions to disease or injury, and includes swelling, pain and stiffness. Inflammation that lasts for a very long time or recurs, as in arthritis, can lead to tissue damage.

Disc Degeneration
Only a person who has experienced it understands the agony and helplessness that come with a damaged spinal disc. The pain is excruciating, and every movement makes it worse. Spinal disc problems are sometimes lumped together under the term degenerative disc disease. Change in the condition of the disc is a natural result of aging, and it contributes to a gradual loss of flexibility as we grow older. But disc degeneration is far more serious in some people than in others. Severe cases may be the result of a deficiency in collagen, the material that makes up cartilage. Poor muscle tone and obesity also put excessive strain on the spine and the ligaments that hold the discs in place.

Radiculopathy
Doctors use the term radiculopathy to specifically describe pain, and other symptoms like numbness, tingling, and weakness in your arms or legs that are caused by a problem with your nerve roots. Radiculopathy usually creates a pattern of pain and numbness that is felt in your arms or your legs in the area of skin supplied by the sensory fibers of the nerve root, and weakness in the muscles that are also supplied by the same nerve root. The number of roots that are involved can vary, from one to several, and it can also affect both sides of the body at the same time.

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