Through Pain Management Services, our aim is to support people to manage acute pain (short-term pain often resulting from surgery or trauma), and chronic pain (pain conditions lasting more than six months that are caused by any number of factors or events). We are a team of specialized health professionals who offer advice, treatments and consultations, and are active in patient care, research and education.

For acute pain, the goal is to achieve as much pain relief as possible, allowing patients to recover and regain normal function more quickly. With chronic pain, we aim to reduce the pain where possible and provide additional strategies that support people to live with the pain and pursue a healthy lifestyle.

Services Offered

Pain Management Services offer a range of services to help people manage acute and chronic pain. Through discussions with patients, members of the pain management team will help determine the most effective pain management plan.

Acute pain management via regional anesthesia/analgesia, and patient-controlled intravenous analgesia.

Regional analgesia (loss of pain) blocks pain that travels through a nerve by injecting an analgesic drug close to the nerve trunk. Regional anesthesia (loss of sensation) is characterized by the loss of sensation to a specific region of the body, caused by injecting a local anesthetic around a peripheral nerve or the spinal cord. There are many different regional analgesia techniques that can be used to eliminate pain, including epidural analgesia. Regional anesthesia techniques, also known as regional blocks, are used in select general, orthopaedic, thoracic, plastic, urology and vascular surgeries. Regional anesthesia often reduces the need for opioids, many of which have unwanted side effects.

Patient-controlled intravenous analgesia allows patients to control the delivery (timing and quantity) of analgesic drugs to manage their pain. Analgesic drugs, often opioids such as morphine are available through an IV that begins the flow of drug(s) when the patient pushes a button. Patient Controlled Intravenous Analgesia is commonly used after major surgery when patients are expected to experience moderate to severe pain and when regional anesthesia/analgesia is not recommended.

Chronic pain treatment and management through medication, nerve blocks, acupuncture, trigger point injections, transcutaneus electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), and self-management.

Medications, ranging from antidepressants to opioids, may be effective in managing chronic pain. *If an antidepressant medication is suggested, it does not mean that you are depressed or that staff think the pain is ‘in your head.’ Research studies have demonstrated that antidepressants can indeed relieve pain.

Regional anesthesia techniques, also known as nerve blocks, involve injecting a local anesthetic close to a nerve to block the ‘pain signal’ to the brain.

Acupuncture involves inserting very thin needles into specific areas of the body to decrease pain. Acupuncture is provided by physiotherapists working with chronic pain services.

Trigger point injections are commonly used to relieve pain in a muscle. An anesthetic solution is injected into a trigger point which is a very tender spot in the muscle. With each injection, the level of pain may be reduced for longer periods of time.

Transcutaneus electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) reduces pain by applying low-voltage electricity through patches placed over the skin.

The Chronic Pain Self-Management Program is a group program of up to 16 people who learn ways to feel better, live healthier and learn to cope with chronic pain. The program uses principles from psychology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. The program is for people who have not benefitted from treatments and who wish to learn non-medical ways of managing chronic pain.

Your health care provider can make a referral; there may be a wait time of up to several months.

Programs run at the QEII Health Sciences Centre and at the Hants Community Hospital.