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Musculoskeletal Pain & Injury 101

Musculoskeletal pain is the most common reason for medical visits to the doctor. It can be as simple as a carpel tunnel from typing all day at work,  just sitting in the same position at work, or back or neck injury from a car accident.

Pain specialists examine, diagnose, manage and treat musculoskeltal pain & injury. The musculoskeletal system is made up of your bones, muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and nerves. This complex system requires all of it’s parts to be healthy in order for you to move and work with out pain, discomfort or limited movement.

Pain specialists correct spine and bone injuries, abnormalities and deformities. They can help patients who struggle with agonizing arthritis, have broken bones from a car accident, or work injury.

Pain Treatment, Rehabilitation & Prevention

Once a pain specialist has evaluated and diagnosed an injury or disorder, a pain specialists will decide the best course of treatment for the patient. Rehabilitation is often suggested to build muscles through repetitive exercise that will restore mobility, increase movement and rebuild strength.

Back Pain Most Common Musculoskeletal Pain?

Lower back pain is the most common type of muscle pain as well as, tendonitis, myalgia (muscle pain), and stress fractures.

Causes of musculoskeletal pain

Musculoskeletal pain is most caused by an injury to the bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, or nerves. This can be caused by jerking movements, car accidents, slip and falls, work injuries: fractures, sprains, dislocations, and direct blows to the muscle.

Bad posture or prolonged immobilization from sitting in the same position at work all day can also cause chronic muscle pain.

Types of musculoskeletal pain?

Some of the more common types of pain include:

  • Bone Injury: This is usually deep, penetrating, or dull. It most commonly results from injury. It is important to be sure that the symptoms are not related to a fracture or tumor.
  • Muscle spasms and cramps: This is often less intense than bone pain, but it can still be debilitating, caused by an injury, an autoimmune reaction, loss of blood flow to the muscle, infection, or a tumor.
  • Tendon and ligament injury: Tendons or ligaments injuries, including sprains often becomes worse when the affected area is stretched or moved.
  • Fibromyalgia: This is a condition that may cause pain in the muscles, tendons, or ligaments ans is usually in multiple locations and can be difficult to describe. Fibromyalgia is usually accompanied by other symptoms.
  • Joint injuries: Joint injuries and diseases usually produce a stiff, aching, “arthritic” aches that range from mild to severe and worsens when moving the joint. The joints may also swell. Joint inflammation (arthritis) is a common cause of pain.
  • “Tunnel” syndromes: This refers to pain due to nerve compression. The disorders include carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome, and tarsal tunnel syndrome. The pain tends to spread along the path supplied by the nerve and may feel like burning. These disorders are often caused by overuse.
Musculoskeletal pain
Causes of Musculoskeletal pain, include workplace or sports injuries.

Spinal Cord Injury Car Accident Hope

Physical therapy for car accident victims suffering spinal cord injury.

Damage to the spine after a car accident is a serious medical emergency that needs to be treated immediately. Treating spinal cord injuries in time can affect the patients recovery. Motor vehicle accidents whether your the driver or passenger can seriously injure the spine.

Cortisone, hydrocortisone and prednisone, are used to reduce and control swelling that can damage the spinal cord. The objective is to remove or reduce the swelling before spinal nerves are completely destroyed, causing paralysis.

Spinal decompression surgery is sometimes needed to:

  • Remove fluid or tissue that presses on the spinal cord.
  • Removal of bone fragments after an injury in a car accident.
  • Fuse broken spinal bones or place spinal braces

Rest may be needed to allow the bones of the spine to heal.

Spinal traction administered by a board certified spinal specialist, may be recommended. This type of  treatment helps keep the spine from moving.

New York Spine Specialists
Hope After Spinal Cord Injury 1-800-949-6100

It is recommended that an accident victim consult with a physical therapists who can provide treatment options for muscle spasms related to car accident injuries. Once a patient has undergone treatment for a spine related injury physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation therapies will be the next step to recovery.

Rehabilitation helps patients cope with the pain associated with their spinal cord injury.

  • Exercise
  • Physical therapy
  • Ultrasound therapy
  • Trigger point injections
  • Manual adjustments
  • EMS
  • Therapeutic exercises
  • Massage therapy
  •  And many more…

Recovering quadriplegic:determination and physical therapy gives hope.

A 28-year-old man is told he’ll never walk again after a tragic car accident, but with the right physical therapy and determination he proves some doctors wrong.

Vince Rutley pulled over on the highway to help  his brother who was having car  trouble, when he was hit by a truck.

Recounting his story, Vince says he was tossed around inside his vehicle and his head was busted open and neck had snapped causing damage to his body. Doctors told him he would never move his arms, sit up or walk again.

But against all odds, Vince is beginning to recover, just a month after the accident.

2 years later, Vince continues to surpass everyone’s expectations as he makes a greater recovery. He’s using his arms and gaining control of his wrists.

It’s important that patients suffering spinal cord injury remember that no case is the same. Everybody grows back at different levels; everybody gains function at a different levels. Physical therapy and determination shows that nothing is impossible and there’s hope for recovery.

It may take three weeks, 6 months,or years to recover fully from a traumatic car accident that has damaged a patients spine.  However, there have been many stories of patients who have stood up and walked out thanks to the assistance of a physical therapist.

A few words of wisdom for those recovering from an injury to the spine: “Have a strong heart, and a positive attitude, and good things will happen”.

Chronic pain therapy the first step in healing!!

Chronic Pain Therapy

Physical therapy is a healing art and science that helps individuals by decreasing pain and restoring function.  A complete neuro-musculoskeletal evaluation for each person leads to the development of therapy goals and a treatment plan.

Initial treatment includes techniques to alleviate pain. This symptom relief is followed by exercise and joint and soft-tissue manipulation to restore normal movement. To help you understand the injuries and treatment, we have explained the types of manual therapy, physical medicine modalities, pain management and electro diagnostic studies that you may come across as you are treating in our office.

Manual Therapy:

  • Myofascial Release is a technique used to stretch fascia. Fascia is the interwoven connective tissue that surrounds our muscles and organs, and when we experience physical trauma, scarring or inflammation, the fascia may become tight and restricted causing pain and restriction of motion. This hands-on therapeutic stretching helps to reduce pain and restore motion by releasing restriction of the injured fascia and restore its function.

Physical Medicine Modalities:

lce/Cryotherapy

  • Cold packs are applied to the area of pain and inflammation where cold is transferred to the patient’s skin, muscle and tissue which reduces the inflammation and decreases pain and swelling.

Heat Pack

  • Moist heat packs are used to relax tight muscles causing tissues to relax, which decreases pain caused by muscle tension or spasm, and allows for more effective stretching and mobilization.

Ultrasound

  • Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves that penetrate heat into human tissue deeper than any other heat modality. This deep heat promotes muscle relaxation and circulation while helping to relieve inflammation, muscle spasm and pain.

Electrical Stimulation

  • Electrical stimulation uses an electrical current to cause a single muscle or group of muscles to contract, which helps relax or strengthen the affected muscle and promotes blood supply to the area(s), which assists in healing.

Traction

  • Therapeutic spinal traction uses manual or mechanical tension created by a gentle pulling force to stretch and mobilize the spine to help increase the space between vertebrae and relieve nerve compression, pain and spasm.

Paraffin Baths

  • Paraffin is soothing moist heat to warm joints, tissue and skin.  Paraffin is ideal for the treatment of patients suffering from pain associated with arthritis, strains, joint stiffness, and it’s also used to increase range of motion.

Trigger Point Injections

  • Trigger Point Injection (TPI) is used to treat painful areas of muscle.  When muscles do not relax, they tighten or knot, causing spasm.  These knots/spasms of muscle are called a trigger point, which may irritate the surrounding nerves causing pain to be felt in another part of the body.  This

knots/spasms of muscle are called a trigger point, which may irritate the surrounding nerves causing pain to be felt in another part of the body. This is also known as referred pain.  Using a small needle, a local anesthetic is injected into the trigger  point, which inactivates the trigger point and alleviates the pain.

Prolotherapy

  • Prolotherapy, which is also known as nonsurgical ligament reconstruction, is a treatment useful for many different types of musculoskeletal pain.

When a tendon or ligament is stretched, due to trauma overuse, it becomes pain sensitive. This type of injection stimulates the tissue to repair itself, thus tightening the stretched ligament or tendon and making it stronger.

Epidural Steroid Injection

  • Epidural Steroid Injection (ESI) is a common nonsurgical procedure used to treat pain caused by spinal nerve irritation.  The ESI delivers a long lasting steroid medication and a local anesthetic to the epidural space reducing inflammation or swelling of the nerves.

chronic pain therapyElectro Diagnostic Studies (EMG and NCS)

  • Electromyography(EMG) and Nerve Conduction Studies(NCS) are used to study their nerves and muscles, which help physicians arrive at a diagnosis. There are two parts to these studies. Nerve conduction studies will measure the health of the nerve by applying small electrical impulses to the nerves, measuring the speed and intensity of electrical signals that travel along those nerves. During the EMG, a small thin needle is inserted into specific muscles, one at a time, a1;1d visual and auditory information is collected through the electrical signals that travel from needle to the EMG machine. This test usually takes 30-60 minutes and normal activities can resume after the test.

Looking for a physician that specializes in chronic pain therapy in the NYC,Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Long Island metropolitan area call 1800-949-6100 for a physician that specializes in chronic pain therapy in your area.

Neighborhoods with pain medicine physicians include:

Manhattan  Chelsea East Village Gramercy Park Greenwich Village Hamilton Heights Harlem Hell’s Kitchen Lower East Side Lower Manhattan Midtown East/Sutton Pl. Midtown West Morningside Heights Murray Hill NoHo/NoLIta SoHo TriBeCa Upper East Side Upper West Side Washington Heights West Village.

Brooklyn Boerum Hill Brooklyn Hts Carroll Gardens Clinton Hill Cobble Hill DUMBO Fort Greene Greenpoint Kennsington Park Slope Prospect Heights Red Hook Williamsburg Windsor Terrace.

The Bronx:
–Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Woodlawn, Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham.
–Tremont, University Heights, Morris Heights, Morrisania, Melrose, Hunts Point, Port Morris, Mott Haven, Highbridge.
–Soundview, Castle Hill, Westchester Square, Parkchester, West Farms.
–Throgs Neck, Pelham Bay, Pelham Parkway, Morris Park, City Island.
–Wakefield, Eastchester, Edenwald, Williamsbridge, Baychester

 Queens Astoria and LIC

Chronic Pain Therapy
Sometimes pain goes on for weeks, months or even years. This is called chronic pain. 1-800-949-6100

Get Your Life Back With Chronic Pain Therapy: 1-800-949-6100 Find A Pain Physician in New York

Pain Doctors Provide Pain Alternatives Not Pills

Pain Doctors Give Alternative Healing Methods

Whenever anyone thinks of pain relief, immediately they seek out pain doctors for quick, feel good methods in the form of a pill or an injection. The answer to the problem of chronic low back pain is not temp relief, but long term pain-free relief.  Is it possible to actually pain free?

Pain Doctors Offering Low Back Pain Therapy
Treatments include: Spinal manipulation, physical therapy, & injections.

People who suffer from chronic low back pain are looking beyond invasive surgeries or narcotics as a cure. Severe back pain is often times a result of the spinal cord is being compressed or a nerve is being compressed to the point that the person can not function properly.

One answer to reduce suffering, is choosing an internal medicine physician that offers physical therapy treatment programs for lower back pain. These programs consist of medically supervised exercise rehabilitation.

The pain doctors understand that relying on drugs, surgery and injections, is short term may not be a cure but temporary relief. Their goal is to give the patient their lives back so they can back to living their lives without suffering and manage their pain without injections or pills.

Evidence has shown that spinal manipulation — a therapeutic technique in which doctors apply controlled force to the spine — can be effective for chronic low back pain. Exercise is a way of strengthening the muscles and lessening the pain.

Spinal manipulation is one of the tools used at pain clinics throughout New York.

Choose from pain doctors throughout New York:

  • Gautam Khakhar, M.D., FAAPMR
    3815 Putnam Avenue
    Bronx, NY 10463
  • Gautam Khakhar, M.D., FAAPMR
    675 Morris Ave
    Bronx, NY 10463
  • Dr. Rafael Abramov
    3227 East Tremont Avenue
    Bronx, NY 10461
  • David H. Delman, M.D.
    48 East 43rd St
    6th Floor
    New York, NY 10017
  • Gautam Khakhar, M.D., FAAPMR
    95-20 Queens Blvd.
    Rego Park, NY 11374
  • Mike M. Pappas, D.O.
    31-35 31st Street
    Astoria, NY 11106
  • David H. Delman, M.D.
    3907 4th Avenue
    Brooklyn, NY 11232
  • Gautam Khakhar, M.D., FAAPMR
    1765 Broadway
    Brooklyn, NY 11207
  • David H. Delman, M.D.
    2132 Ralph Avenue
    Brooklyn, NY 11234
  • David H. Delman, M.D.
    48 East 43rd St
    6th Floor
    New York, NY 10017
  • Joseph Gregorace, D.O.
    160 N. Franklin Street
    Hempstead, NY 11550
  • Raj Tolat, M.D.
    54 W. Merrick Road
    Valley Stream, NY 11580
  • Joseph Gregorace, D.O.
    2570 Merrick Road
    Bellmore, NY 11710
  • Dr. Raj D. Tolat, M.D.
    245-19 Jericho Turnpike
    Bellerose, NY 11426
  • Raj Tolat, M.D.
    2920 RT-112
    Medford, NY 1176
  • Jeffrey Perry, D.O.
    2033 Deer Park Avenue
    Deer Park, NY 11729

This manipulations technique helps the joints move more freely. allowing the muscles to relax and move more freely. Back pain is one of the most common reasons that people come to see the listed doctors. The listed pain doctors, have internal medicine, and pain management backgrounds.

Repetitive strain injury in the workplace

Repetitive strain injury

(RSIs) are injuries to the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.

Other names for RSI injuries:

  • RMI: Repetitive Motion Injury
  • MSD: Musculoskeletal Disorder
  • CTD: Cumulative Trauma Disorder
  • OOS: Occupational Overuse Syndrome
  • WRULD: Work-Related Upper Limb Disorder
  • UEMSD: Upper Extremity Musculoskeletal Disorder

Risk factors include poor posture, and excessive workload. Working for long periods without rest and using repetitive movements or repetitive forceful hand motions (twisting or gripping) are also contributing factors, as are prolonged body vibrations (such as from power tools), fatigue, cold work environments, and psychosocial stressors.

Symptoms may worsen over time and include recurring sharp or dull pain, soreness, stiffness, tingling and numbness, loss of sensation, limited range of motion, weakness, fatigue, or persistent tension in the neck, shoulders, upper back, elbows, wrists, or hands. Pain may be referred from one area to another, such as when nerve impingement in the neck or shoulder causes pain in the forearm or hand. Less commonly, pain may also be referred to the back or lower extremities.

Symptoms in the arms or hands may worsen when lying in bed.

Routine daily activities such as driving, carrying groceries, housework, or gardening may worsen symptoms. Without treatment, symptoms may become continuous and progress to long-term injury and disability.

Diagnosis is often difficult and is based upon a thorough history and physical examination by a physician familiar with RSI syndromes. Injuries are not identifiable with X-rays or other radiological studies since the injuries involve soft tissues.

In order to properly diagnosis and treat an RSI injury workers need a specialist,i.e., physical therapist, physiatrist, or a pain medicine doctor. If you live in the NYC, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Long Island metro areas choose from the MSR directory for a physician in your local neighborhood to treat your injury.

All the doctors within our network are board certified and accept workers compensation insurance.

Workers are more likely to suffer a repetitive strain or injury when they perform jobs with that include repetitive movements, forceful efforts, and fixed or awkward postures.

 

 Repetitive Strain Injury
Repetitive Strain Injury Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation: 1-800-949-6100
Repetitive strain injury

Repetitive strain injury (RSI) refer to to damage to the musculoskeletal and nervous system that caused by repetitive tasks, often times a strain or injury at work.
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