Management of pain problems may require manual therapies, pharmacotherapy, referral to allied health professionals including physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists and physicians, ACC programmes etc.

Acute pain problems should be aggressively treated so as to prevent chronicity which may have profound effects on the patient and family.

Service types: Management of acute or chronic pain problems and syndromes.

Patients with sciatic pain (leg pain) after a prolapsed disc with abutment or compression of a nerve root may get significant relief from injections into the site of bupivacaine and a steroid. These injections are only given under x-ray guidance for safety reasons and usually after the patient has had an MRI.

Service types: Management of acute or chronic pain problems and syndromes.

Any joint in the upper or lower limbs may be a source of pain, and intra-articular injection may be the best treatment option. Being performed under x-ray guidance has the advantage that joint entry can be confirmed with contrast, thus maximising the treatment effect.

Service types: Management of acute or chronic pain problems and syndromes.

Peripheral nerve blocks are interventions which involve injections of local anaesthetic and/or steroids around peripheral nerves in order to influence pain phenomena.  These can include injections under the flexor retinaculum at the wrist for carpal tunnel syndrome, injections around the suprascapular nerve for varieties of shoulder and periscapular pain, occipital nerve blocks for occipitalgia and headaches, ilio-inguinal nerve blocks, intercostal nerve blocks, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve blocks, genitofemoral nerve blocks, and diagnostic cervical and lumbar medial branch blocks for the diagnosis of chronic pain in those regions.