Going above and beyond for our patients in pain
Patients need more than our surgical skills and compassion. They often need help managing their pain, whether from surgery or other health conditions. Unlike most other orthopedic spine surgery centers, we offer comprehensive pain management and nutritional support onsite for our patients.
Pain management is critical to quality of life
Our dual board-certified, fellowship-trained pain management specialist will be part of your therapy. Dr. Pamela D’Amato, who has exceptional training from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, works closely with our orthopedic spine specialists and provides targeted injections of medications with other advanced interventional therapies.
Dr. D’Amato may recommend that you have a local anesthetic and corticosteroid injection. She performs injections using video X-ray technology called fluoroscopy. Other therapies include epidurals, transforaminal injections and facet block injections. Dr. D’Amato provides exceptional, innovative, compassionate care to her patients and the community. Her goal is to help people achieve healthier, more enjoyable lives by helping them overcome:
- Radicular pain (cervical or lumbar radiculopathy)
- Back and neck pain
- Failed back surgery
- Arthritis
- Osteoporosis
- Lumbar spinal stenosis
Other therapies to reduce or eliminate pain
Many people benefit from a spinal cord stimulator or neurostimulation device. These devices send low-energy electrical pulses to a specific area of the spine to help block pain signals. While spinal cord stimulators block pain signals with electrical pulses, radiofrequency ablation destroys damaged tissue with radiofrequency energy.
Radiofrequency ablation (sometimes used to treat cancer or heart problems) can also be performed to help treat spine-related pain. Under fluoroscopic guidance, a needle is directed into the facet joint (between two adjacent vertebrae). Once the needle is in place, it transmits radiofrequency energy to ablate, or destroy, very small areas of tissue. This is sometimes called rhizotomy.
Help for spine injuries in sports
Whether you are a weekend warrior or a competitive professional athlete, you’ll find expert orthopedic spine care at University Spine Center. We treat pro-athletes from the NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL and MMA. Dr. Emami was also a consulting team physician for the New York Rangers professional hockey team.
