“Pain therapy,” also referred to as “analgesic therapy” or “pain medicine,” focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from predominantly chronic pain, whether benign or cancer-related.
Caring for “pain and the person” often requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving collaboration among various specialists within a diagnostic-therapeutic pathway. This pathway integrates appropriate and complementary therapies, including pharmacological, invasive, instrumental, psychological, and rehabilitative interventions.
Pain initially serves as a physiological response, signaling the presence of an injury or alteration in the body and acting as a protective mechanism. However, when pain persists even after the initial injury has healed, it loses its role as a useful symptom and becomes a condition in its own right.
A wide range of conditions can trigger pain that evolves into chronic pain. When inadequately managed, this pain can lead to complications such as anxiety and depression, further diminishing the patient’s quality of life and social relationships. Such cases require a biopsychosocial therapeutic approach.
In Italy, Law No. 38 of March 15, 2010, recognizes every citizen’s right to access pain therapy and palliative care. This legislation establishes criteria for developing care networks that involve territorial medicine and hospital centers. Pain therapy is included in the Essential Levels of Care (LEA), making it one of the medical services guaranteed by the National Health Service.
Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, a key hub in the regional pain management network, serves as a referral center for advanced pain treatment. Outpatient consultations and first-line therapies are provided at the Giovanni Paolo II Outpatient Clinic from Monday to Friday. Within the hospital, a comprehensive therapeutic approach is offered through multimodal pharmacological therapies, minimally invasive procedures (such as infiltrations with drugs and biologic products used in regenerative medicine, central and peripheral nerve blocks, percutaneous pain neuromodulation techniques with radiofrequency, and nerve decompression techniques), and major interventions that are sometimes surgical in nature (including neuroplastic and spinal endoscopic therapies, neuromodulation techniques for spinal and peripheral stimulation, and the implantation of electronic pumps for spinal pharmacological neuromodulation). Biological support therapies and complementary medicine are also provided, along with continuous monitoring and evaluation of therapeutic outcomes.
Chronic Pain Conditions Treated Include:
- Cancer-related pain, including pain from vertebral and extravertebral bone metastases.
- Trigeminal neuralgia, post-stroke central pain, postherpetic neuralgia, and pain and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis and degenerative neurological conditions.
- Peripheral neuropathies, such as diabetic neuropathy, meralgia paresthetica, Arnold neuralgia, pudendal neuralgia, and chemotherapy-induced neuropathies.
- Complex regional pain syndromes following trauma or neurological injury.
- Headaches and craniofacial pain.
- Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar radiculopathies caused by herniated discs or discopathies.
- Low back pain, thoracic pain, neck pain, and sacroiliac joint pain.
- Post-surgical pain syndromes, including post-herniorrhaphy neuralgia, post-thoracotomy pain, post-mastectomy pain, and pain following spinal surgeries or radiotherapy.
- Chronic pelvic and perineal pain, including coccydynia.
- Ischemic pain in chronic vascular diseases, phantom limb pain, and post-amputation pain.
- Rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic rheumatic conditions.
- Osteoarthritis of major and minor joints, including the hip, shoulder, knee, and ankle.
- Musculoskeletal pain caused by tendinopathies, muscle strains, trauma, or sports injuries.
- Fibromyalgia and generalized widespread pain.
U.O.S. Anestesia 2
