[Pain management from the viewpoint of the anesthetist]

In a pain clinic team the anesthetist has the knowledge and experience concerning the peripheral and central neural blockades. The value of the diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic blockades is today under discussion. Patients with a chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS) can find some relief with a series of somatic and sympatholytic blockades, which allow an aggressive physiotherapy. Epidural steroid injections are helpful in radiculopathic pain. In other types of pain (neuropathic, postherpetic, failed back surgery syndrome, abdominal, cervico-cephalgic, phantom limb pain und tumor pain) the spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and the intrathecal morphine pump are approved methods for intactable pain.