Pain Medicine

Pain management at UCSF Health

Pain can be complex. It can be acute or chronic, affect different parts of the body, arise from surgery, injury or another cause. That's why pain treatment often requires a team of specialists to provide individualized, effective care. The pain medicine team at the UCSF Center for Pain Medicine includes specialists from a variety of backgrounds including:

• Anesthesiologists
• Emergency medicine doctors
• Family medicine doctors
• Integrative medicine providers
• Neurologists
• Nurse practitioners
• Pharmacists
• Physical medicine and rehabilitation doctors
• Physical therapists
• Psychologists

All of our doctors are board certified in pain medicine. We aim to empower you with options and help you find lasting, safe pain relief.

For your convenience, we offer both in-person and telehealth appointments.

Conditions we treat

Our pain medicine specialists evaluate and treat people with all types of pain. Whether you've been dealing with it for weeks or years, our pain medicine doctors can help you find relief from:

• Arthritis
• Back pain
• Cancer pain
• Central pain syndrome (typically after a stroke)
• Complex regional pain syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Headache
• Musculoskeletal pain
• Myofascial pain
• Nerve pain
• Pelvic pain
• Post-surgical pain
• Post-traumatic pain (pain that persists after an injury has healed)

Pain treatments

We offer a range of treatments that have been shown to relieve pain, including medications, nonsurgical and surgical procedures and psychological interventions.

Therapies include:

Medication management. Our team works with your other providers, including your primary care provider, to safely monitor and adjust pain medications.

Injection treatments. Our pain medicine specialists offer trigger point injections, ultrasound- or X-ray-guided steroid injections and nerve blocks to help reduce pain. Epidural steroid injections are one of the most common procedures we perform for back pain.

Infusion therapy. We use an IV to give you medications, such as ketamine and lidocaine.

Radiofrequency ablation. In these procedures, we apply an electrical current to nerves to block pain signals to the brain. For example, we use the Intracept Procedure (also called basovertebral nerve ablation) to treat a certain type of chronic low back pain.)

Regenerative therapies. These therapies can accelerate healing and promote regrowth in injured tissues. We offer prolotherapy (joint injections that may trigger connective tissue growth) and platelet-rich plasma therapy, where we inject your own platelets into injured tissue.

Minimally invasive lumbar decompression. This procedure can be used to treat back pain caused by spinal canal narrowing.

Neuromodulation. A surgically implanted device, such as a spinal cord stimulator or intrathecal pain pump, can be placed to deliver electrical stimulation or pain medications directly to nerves. We also perform types of neuromodulation that are less invasive, such as peripheral nerve stimulation or transcutaneous electrical modulation pain reprocessing (Scrambler Therapy).

Psychological care. Our behavioral health experts offer mindfulness-based stress reduction, cognitive behavioral therapy and biofeedback in individual and group settings.

Pediatric pain care

We offer comprehensive pain management for children of all ages and work with their families to ensure they're safe and comfortable. Our team includes anesthesiologists and pain psychologists who are pediatric specialists with advanced training in pain medicine for children. Our pain pharmacists also work with patients and their families.

Surgical pain management for children

If your child needs surgery, we work closely with their surgical team to manage pain before, during and after the procedure. We help your child stay comfortable during surgery, safely wean from medication and address any lingering pain during recovery.

Chronic pain management for children

We work closely with your child's other doctors to provide effective pain relief for:

• Chronic pain, including abdominal pain, headaches and musculoskeletal pain (such as low back pain)
• Fibromyalgia
• Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (chronic inflammatory disease affecting children's joints)
• Pain related to chronic childhood diseases
• Pelvic pain
• Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders (conditions causing pain in the jaw and surrounding muscles)

Treatment varies from patient to patient. Alleviating your child's pain may involve a combination of therapies, including medication, appointments with our pain psychologist, and procedures such as nerve blocks or muscle, joint or steroid injections.