Procedure for pain therapy

Please remember your referral slip, and bring any previous diagnoses and images with you, if possible. If possible, bring a letter from a pain therapist, possibly a letter from the referring physician with justification of the necessity for performing CT-controlled pain therapy. Bring current blood test results, particularly kidney function (creatinine) and thyroid (TSH), and possibly blood clotting. 

If you are allergic to contrast agents or take blood thinners, please contact us prior to therapy.

CT-controlled pain therapy is a highly precise pain therapy that can provide significant relief of pain for the majority of chronic pain patients. Close cooperation with the treating physician is important to us, because pain therapy can only be one building block of back pain therapy.

For pain therapy, the treating physician inserts a thin needle into the region of the nerve root causing the pain and/or into the joint. When the needle is in the correct position, which is monitored using computed tomography, a mixture of a local anesthetic, a cortisone compound, and an X-ray contrast medium is administered. The effect of the medication is limited almost entirely to the application site. Effects on the entire body are almost completely eliminated. The intervention takes place under local anesthetic.

Particularly for PRT, it must be considered that the ability to walk will be limited for 6-8 hours after the therapy. This is because the treated nerve is not only responsible for pain perception, but also for part of motor control. This means that an accompanying person is required.

The process uses a low dose of X-ray radiation and may be performed only by a radiologist.