Chronic Pain Management

Who We Are

The Division of Chronic Pain Management UHN-MSH provides patient care, education and research in the area of chronic pain and cancer pain. We offer both inpatient and outpatient chronic pain services, across multiple programs, at four hospitals: Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto General Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital, and Mount Sinai Hospital. Each of these programs focuses on a unique patient population and we strive to provide multidisciplinary evaluation and comprehensive pain management for every patient.

What We Do

Our goal is to prevent and manage chronic pain syndromes, while following principles of evidence-based medicine, to ensure that our patients receive the best possible care.

We help patients with various pain disorders, often in multiple parts of the body including:

• Atypical facial pain
• Chronic neck, back and radicular (e.g. sciatica) pain secondary to degenerative disc and facet joint disease
• Chronic pelvic region pain (male and female)
• Complex regional pain syndromes
• Myofascial pain and fibromyalgia
• Neuralgias including post-herpetic neuralgia, post-thoracotomy pain syndromes
• Pain secondary to vascular insufficiency syndromes
• Post-traumatic syndromes
  

We have a special interest and focus on diagnosing and treating chronic pain with image-guided interventional techniques (using ultrasound and fluoroscopy).

We understand the importance of patient education and motivation in managing challenging chronic pain syndromes.

Empathy and compassion are the basic beliefs that guide our patient care. We ensure that our patients have adequate time to discuss their pain problems and management options with our staff.

Regularly scheduled team conferences are held to review each patient's treatment plan and progress.

Our Programs

Patients are seen via referral from a health care professional. We offer the following programs for the management of chronic pain:

• Comprehensive Integrated Pain Program (CIPP) – Interventional Pain Service
  This clinic is for patients requiring diagnostic and therapeutic nerve blocks, and pharmacological management of neuropathic pain syndromes.
• Interventional Procedures for Cancer Pain
  Patients with cancer pain, who have inadequate pain relief from pharmacological management, can be referred for interventional pain procedures (such as celiac plexus block, superior hypogastric plexus block, intrathecal catheters). Interventional pain procedures are performed at Toronto Western Hospital or at Princess Margaret Hospital.
• Inpatient Referrals for Chronic Pain Management
  Patients with chronic pain issues, who are admitted to UHN or Mount Sinai Hospital, can be referred for consultation with the Acute Pain Service team. If the pain management falls out of the scope of the APS team, the patient will be referred to the Chronic Pain Service.
  Patients may be referred to one of our outpatient programs for long-term pain management after they have been discharged from the hospital.
• Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital
  The Wasser Pain Management Centre is a referral centre for adults with chronic, non-cancer, disabling pain disorders. This is a multidisciplinary and multi-professional clinical research, assessment and treatment centre. Interventional pain procedures are performed at Mount Sinai Hospital on Friday mornings.

Our Research

Our research focuses on novel therapies for pain management. We are engaged in several projects for evaluating recent advances in pharmacological and interventional pain management.

Our Education

We are committed to educating patients and health care professionals (including medical students, nurses, residents, clinical fellows, and staff) about chronic pain.

We conduct interventional pain management workshops involving ultrasound and fluoroscopy guidance for procedures for pain physicians at local, national, and interventional levels.

Our staff is invited to present their research and educate health care professionals at international pain meetings.

Learn more about our education initiatives.