Pain Clinic
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ABOUT THE PAIN MANAGEMENT CLINIC
Pain is a subjective symptom that only the patient can feel.
There is no exam to detect and measure pain. Specialists in the pain management clinic must do what they can to form an objective idea of the pain through words, medical history and clinical exams during the consultation.
Above all, pain is an alarm signal and the doctor, before wanting to treat the actual pain, should first make sure that there is no underlying disease requiring treatment.
The pain can be acute or chronic.
Acute pain is pain that is limited in time, but also very intense. It may be post-operative or post-traumatic, or even spontaneous.
Pain is considered chronic if it lasts for over 3 months. Even though it is less intense, it is harder to mentally tolerate as its progression is less predictable.
The Anaesthesiology department is very educated in the management of acute post-operative pain by administering, in the most adequate way possible, a post-operative pain treatment (medication administered orally or by injection, application of a morphine or local anaesthetic infusion pump, nerve blocks, etc.)
The Europe Hospitals offer an Algology service (Pain Management Clinic) at the St-Elisabeth and St-Michel sites. The service is made up of Anaesthesiology specialists that are very experienced with pain management treatments.
As the treatment of chronic pain involves multiple disciplines, anaesthesiologists work closely together with their fellow surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, radiologists, neurologists, rheumatologists, physiatrists, and psychiatrists. The physiotherapy department is also very intensively used.
The proposed treatments are medication therapy, physical therapy based on exercise, invasive therapy (infiltration, nervous system desensitisation, sympatholytic therapy, etc.).
Surgery is a solution that is only suggested as a last resort if:
- the patient is significantly limited by the pain
- medical exams confirm the pain symptoms
- no other non-surgical treatment offers relief to the patient
- alarming symptoms are associated with the pain
The appointment is either scheduled by the patient himself or at the request of a referring general practitioner or specialist. The doctors can take total or partial care of the progression of the pain complaint, based on the request of the patient or referring physician.
If medical exams were performed outside of the Europe Hospitals prior to the first consultation, it is important that the patient has the results available at the time of the consultation.
There is no need to provide any documents before the first consultation.
In case of infiltration, particular attention will be given to medication that could affect blood clotting (aspirin, anticoagulants, antiplatelet agents, etc.). These must be discontinued after consent of the attending physician. A biological coagulation test no older than 6 months is required as well (PTT or INR, blood platelets, aPTT). This blood analysis is requested by the referring physician.
The patient will transmit the results of this analysis if the blood test was performed outside of the Europe Hospitals.
There is no need to provide any documents before the first consultation.
Most infiltrations are reimbursed by the INAMI/RIZIV, but some are entirely the patient’s responsibility.