Geriatric Pain Management: Minimally Invasive Interventions

Chronic pain is quite common as well as challenging in geriatric patients. Common pain syndromes reported are back, neck, sciatica, joint, and headaches.

Any major surgery for back pain or joint replacement can be high risk secondary to comorbid conditions. Patients are quite sensitive to side effects from pain medications such as sedation, drowsiness, constipation, and respiratory depression. As the field of pain management is evolving, many minimally invasive alternatives are available to help the geriatric patient population with chronic pain.

Various treatment approaches will be discussed including radiofrequency ablation, percutaneous lumbar decompression, endoscopic discectomy, endoscopic foraminotomy, spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation.