Our experts at the Pain Management Center at Cooper create treatment plans to alleviate or reduce chronic or severe pain. Our goal is to improve your quality of life both physically and emotionally.
In some cases, treatments may be simple. For example, some patients who are bedridden find relief by changing position regularly or using durable medical equipment to support a more comfortable posture. More complex approaches may involve a combination of the treatments listed below.
We look forward to helping you find minimally invasive approaches to help avoid medications and opioids.
Types of Pain Management
Our multidisciplinary team works together to offer a full spectrum of pain management options. In addition to pain management specialists, this team can include specialists from several other departments at Cooper University Health Care. This approach allows us to provide you with better care and better pain relief as we consider all available treatment options.
Medications
Our doctors can prescribe a variety of pain medications to give you relief from your discomfort. Approaches include:
- Oral prescription medications
- Intravenous infusion therapy, which delivers medications directly into a vein in the comfort of our outpatient offices
- Intrathecal drug delivery, which dispenses medications directly into the spinal fluid through a pump and or a thin tube called a catheter
Injections
Our specialists use steroid injections, sometimes mixed with a small amount of anesthetic, to reduce inflammation and relieve pain in more than 40 different areas of the body. We often use injections in painful joints or in areas surrounding nerves, especially near the spine. Learn more about the pain injections we offer.
Nerve blocks
For a nerve block, doctors inject a local anesthetic and a medication that reduces inflammation and temporarily numbs the nerve. When the medication wears off, the nerve resets and no longer fires pain messages to the brain. Most patients need two treatments for long-lasting results. Learn more about our nerve blocks for pain.
Radiofrequency ablation
If injections or nerve blocks do not relieve your pain, radiofrequency ablation may be an option. In this procedure, doctors place probes beneath your skin to heat the nerves that are causing pain. This process destroys the nerves so they are unable to relay pain signals to the brain. Learn more about our radiofrequency ablation for pain.
Electrical nerve stimulation
Our doctors may use spinal cord or peripheral nerve stimulation to treat chronic pain. While you are under general anesthesia, a doctor surgically places a small electrical device, or electrode, to stimulate the spinal cord or the peripheral nerves, which are the nerves located outside of the brain and spinal cord.
The electrode delivers electrical pulses to the nerve that feel like mild tingling, replacing the sensation of pain. You control when the electrode stimulates the nerve using a remote-control device.
Epidural blood patch
An epidural blood patch treats post-dural-puncture headaches, which arise from a leakage of cerebrospinal fluid after a lumbar puncture. For an epidural blood patch, the doctor injects some of your own blood into the opening where the cerebrospinal fluid is leaking. The blood clots and seals the opening.
Surgery
Surgery may sometimes help to relieve pain, depending on your underlying condition. Surgical procedures we offer include a discectomy for a herniated disc, knee replacement for chronic knee pain and arthritis, and spinal fusion for low back pain.
Physical and occupational therapy
Our physical therapists help you manage pain through personalized exercise programs. Occupational therapists teach you how to complete tasks at work in ways that don’t add to your pain.
Counseling
Pain can cause emotional challenges such as distress, anger, anxiety, and depression. Our psychologists and psychiatrists are here to help you navigate the feelings that surround your physical pain. They may also use techniques such as biofeedback or image-guided therapy to help you cope with pain.
Supportive and integrative therapies
Our specialists may recommend supportive therapies such as therapeutic massage and acupuncture. These approaches may help to reduce pain or the stress associated with pain, as well as improve quality of life.
Contact Us
To learn more about the Pain Management Center at Cooper or to schedule an appointment, please call 856.963.6770.
Refer a Patient
Referring physicians are welcome to call us any time at 856.963.6770 with questions or concerns about a shared patient or to refer a patient to our care. Learn more about pain management referrals.