Something I don't understand about Pain Medicine

[freddydpt]

So, I began looking at some pain sites that have incredible videos of procedures performed in interventional pain. What I don't understand is why it isn't called Pain Surgery or Surgical Physiatry. Essentially, these are surgeries right? I know what attracts many students to ophtho and derm are opportunities to be surgeons without having to go through a surgical internship. Is there something political that I am missing?

Thanks!

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[dc2md]

Could you please post links to these sites freddydpt? I love to check 'em out.

 

[zwasfeli]

So, I began looking at some pain sites that have incredible videos of procedures performed in interventional pain. What I don't understand is why it isn't called Pain Surgery or Surgical Physiatry. Essentially, these are surgeries right? I know what attracts many students to ophtho and derm are opportunities to be surgeons without having to go through a surgical internship. Is there something political that I am missing?

Thanks!

From my vantage point in short, these are procedures and PM+R is "medicine" rather than "surgery" much in the same way a colonoscopy with interventions is a medical procedure and not surgical, or a guy who puts in a pacemaker who is trained from a medicine/cardiology standpoint is a proceduralist, not a surgeon.

Surgeons go through a surgery residency. Other people who do procedures but don't have surgical backgrounds are called interventionalists, like your friendly interventional radiologist who puts in pigtail catheters, picc lines, and the sort but really dislikes coming in at 3am and weekends. Interventions that may seem somewhat surgical in nature but are not done by a surgeons and hence, are not surgeries.

 

[Brooklyndo2.1]

::shudders:: can you imagine a specialty called surg/rehab in the same vein as
Med/Peds ?

scary

 

[freddydpt]

Could you please post links to these sites freddydpt? I love to check 'em out.

www.georgiapainphysicians.com

The education tab has links to videos and animations of procedures. Fantastic site!

 

[Finally M3]

It all depends on what your comfort level is.

I have no problem with injections, RFA, discograms. I'm leary about the possibility of IDET and vertebroplasty.

I have no interest at all in stimulator or pump placement. However, I know people who will have/have had the opportunity to do these in pain fellowships.

Whatever floats your boat!

 

[drusso]

No matter how "comfortable" you become with procedures, never fool yourself into thinking that you're a surgeon. Believe me, they will never let *YOU* forget the difference. Just be competent at what you do, a little humble, and stay in the good graces of your surgical colleagues because you never know when you'll urgently *NEED* a surgeon.

 

[lobelsteve]

www.georgiapainphysicians.com

The education tab has links to videos and animations of procedures. Fantastic site!

Thanks for the plug.
We perform 3-5 SCS procedures every week. It is the scope of PMR with Pain Fellowship to do these procedures. It would be outside the scope of our practice to do laminectomy and place paddle leads.

 

[Ligament]

Fully agreed Dave. This is an important point to consider folks.

No matter how "comfortable" you become with procedures, never fool yourself into thinking that you're a surgeon. Believe me, they will never let *YOU* forget the difference. Just be competent at what you do, a little humble, and stay in the good graces of your surgical colleagues because you never know when you'll urgently *NEED* a surgeon.