Abstract
Unrelenting neuropathic pain presents challenges in diagnoses and treatment. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines neuropathic pain as “pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system.” The injury or disease may occur in the peripheral or central nervous system giving rise to painful conditions such as post herpetic neuralgia, painful diabetic neuropathy, post amputation pain, complex regional pain syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, post stroke pain, and pain after spinal cord injury, to name a few. These patients are frequently disabled from severe pain, have poor quality of life, and suffer from anxiety, depression and sleep problems. They often strain the healthcare system with frequent visits. Treatment of neuropathic pain can be challenging, often exhausting conventional approaches. A multimodal approach integrating pharmacological, interventional and integrative modalities may be helpful. This talk will cover a brief review on the pathophysiology of pain and focus on interventions that specifically target neuropathic pain, such as neuromodulation, including peripheral nerve stimulation and infusions using ketamine.
Biography
Dr. Chin is Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the George Washington (GW) University, Washington DC. She served as Director of the GW Pain Medicine Fellowship Program and Co Director of the GW Spine and Pain Center. Dr. Chin earned her medical degree at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her interests include innovative pharmacological, interventional and neuromodulatory techniques for management of chronic neuropathic pain. She has published on topics in pain medicine including pain in women, written numerous articles and authored book chapters on both acute and chronic pain. She served on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Pain Medicine Committee, the American Medical Association (AMA) advisory board for pain, the Anesthesia and Analgesia (A&A) Editorial board as a reviewer, and the American Board of Anesthesiologists (ABA) as an associate board examiner. She has presented and lectured on acute and chronic pain at national meetings including the ASA, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and the American Academy of Pain Medicine. For the past twenty years she was consistently listed in Washington Top Docs for Pain Medicine and was recently awarded the Trailblazer Award from ASRA.