Pain Management

Residents in chronic pain rotations will rotate at the VA Pain Clinic and the UF Pain Clinic. The purpose of both of these rotations is to help the anesthesia resident develop the skills to ameliorate suffering caused by pain problems.

VA Pain Rotation

Neck PainThe VA Pain rotation, held at the Malcom Randall Veterans Administration Hospital across the street from Shands, focuses on improving each resident’s fund of knowledge of common pain syndromes, commonly used medications, and treatment plan formulation.

Residents will also improve procedural skills for joint injections and lumbar procedures.

After completing the first VA Pain rotation, residents should be able to diagnose:

  • Low back pain with or without radiculopathy
  • Cervical pain with or without radiculopathy
  • Failed back surgery syndrome
  • Myofascial pain
  • Inflammatory mediated pain such as bursitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis-related pain
  • Sympathetically mediated pain
  • Neuropathic pain including but not limited to diabetic neuropathy
  • Trigeminal neuralgia
  • Post-herpetic neuralgia
  • Phantom limb pain

UF Pain Rotation

The UF Pain rotation is an elective after completion of the VA Pain rotation.

Residents will learn to perform an initial assessment of the patient with chronic pain, decide on appropriate diagnostic testing, develop skills in performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and learn the appropriate use of pharmacotherapy.

In addition, the resident will develop communication skills helpful in developing a professional, therapeutic relationship with chronic pain patients and their families.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, the resident will learn to develop management strategies, tailoring pain management and treatment modalities to the patient’s individual needs.

The resident completing this rotation should able to diagnose and treat the following common syndromes:

  • Primary headaches
  • Facial pain and Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
  • Post-herpetic neuralgia
  • Diabetic neuropathy
  • Complex regional pain syndrome
  • Lumbar discogenic, facetogenic and postural myofascial low back pain
  • Cervical Discogenic, facetogenic, and myofascial pain
  • Pelvic pain
  • Cancer pain
  • Spastic movement with intrathecal baclofen therapy