Healthcare professionals at a rehabilitation center in Memphis, Tennessee are exploring the use of alternative methods of pain management that may be able to reduce the number of opioid-based medications consumed by patients.
The physical medicine and rehabilitation center, Campbell Clinic, has a team of physicians examining the use of a technique called cryoneurolysis among patients who are experiencing pain after they have gone through a knee replacement surgery.
Cryoneurolysis a type of cryotherapy — any medical therapy that uses overall or specific low temperatures to treat a number of tissue conditions. In the specific technique of cryoneurolysis, extremely low temperatures are applied to select nerves, until these nerves become temporarily frozen, allowing patients to achieve a potential reduction in pain levels.
According to Campbell surgeons, the medical technique is a “hot topic” at the moment, particularly when it comes to the field of orthopedic surgery.
The team of surgeons and specialists leading the initiative aim to use the cryotherapy technique to not only reduce the number of opioid painkillers used by their patients but also to decrease the complications experienced by those patients.
Established over 100 years ago, the rehabilitation center currently has five different sites offering outpatient treatment services across the Memphis area. Campbell’s team also use other medical facilities such as hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers to provide care for the community. The outpatient clinics and the other locations have been used by Campbell specialists to maintain numerous clinical initiatives and research projects to better serve local patients.
Because of the impact that the opioid epidemic has had over the region, many of the clinical projects led by Campbell in recent years have been geared toward finding new ways to reduce the possibility of opioid abuse and misuse among those looking to control their levels of pain.
Pain management is at the center of the opioid epidemic.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that it is estimated that 80 percent of individuals who use illicit opioids such as heroin were first prescribed an opioid painkiller. And statistics by the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that at least 21 percent of the people who receive an opioid-based prescription to manage acute pain eventually end up abusing those medications.
This year, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services released… (continue reading)
