What is pain management?
Advanced pain management that extends beyond medication
At MedStar Health, you’ll find pain management experts who won’t just write a medication prescription and send you on your way. In fact, once we identify the source of your pain, our first approach to relieving your pain typically involves interventions to manage your pain while limiting the need for opiods. There are many effective and safe ways to minimize your pain, restore function, and improve your quality of life without relying on opiod medications. From cortisol injections to neuromodulation techniques that stop pain signals from traveling to the brain, we’ll develop a treatment plan that uses a variety of techniques to meet your individual needs and goals. Servicing patients in the Washington DC, Baltimore, Maryland, Virginia areas.Who we treat
Back pain/sciatica
- Cervical (neck) pain
- Failed back syndrome
- Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
- Myofascial pain
- Facial pain
- Other neuropathic pain
- Headaches (including migraine)
Cancer pain
- Pain of shingles (Herpes zoster/post herpetic neuralgia)
- Pelvic pain
- Central pain syndromes (from spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.)
- Phantom limb pain
What to expect
Each pain management plan is tailored specifically to your needs, minimizing opioid medication when possible. Before, during, and after your procedure, your pain management team will work to aggressively minimize your pain while limiting the need for opioid medications.
Your pain management plan may include one or a combination of the following approaches:
- Epidural injections – Local anesthetics are injected near nerves to reduce pain and inflammation
- Nerve blocks – Medication is injected around large nerve groups to reduce pain in a specific area of the body
- Spinal stimulation – Using a small, handheld device to stimulate nerves through the spine and reduce pain
- Opioid medications – Pills taken orally to manage pain
Our goal is to keep you safe and help you feel as comfortable as possible so you can get back to living the life you love.
Questions to ask your pain management team
- Are pain injections safe?
- Do pain management treatments hurt?
- Am I at risk for a bad reaction?
- How many pain management treatments will I need?
Our pain management experts
You’ll benefit from our team approach as we work closely with other medical specialists to best meet your needs, including:
- Neurology
- Oncology
- Physical therapy
- Psychology
Services offered
All treatments are tailored to meet individual needs. Our services are based on the biopsychosocial model of pain intervention and benefit from a multidisciplinary approach. These include:
- Independent comprehensive evaluation
- Medical evaluation
- Rehabilitative evaluation
- Functional capacity assessment
- AMA disability determination
- Vocational assessment
- Psychological evaluations
- Medical and pharmacologic management
- Neural blockade (spinal cord stimulators, pumps)
- Radiofrequency lesioning
- Physical therapy and conditioning
- Occupational therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Biofeedback
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)
- Acupuncture and acupressure
- Relaxation and stress management training
- Individual and group therapy programs
- Patient educational programs
- Spinal injection techniques - precise applications of steroids or other indication to the spine under X-ray (fluoroscope) guidance
- Joint applications of steroids
- Diagnostic procedures of the spine, including discography, intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET)
- Spinal implantation of advanced pain management devices (spinal cord stimulators and infusion pumps)
Our providers
Location: Change location Enter your location
Pain Management Specialists
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Thomas Phillip Cestare, MD
Pain Medicine
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Matthew R. Hansen, MD
Pain Medicine
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Arash Khoie, MD
Pain Medicine
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Malady Santhosh Kodgi, MD
Pain Medicine
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Ayasha L. Williams-Sharron, MD
Pain Medicine
Our locations
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MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center
9000 Franklin Square
Dr. Pain Management 2C
Baltimore, MD 21237
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MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital
5601 Loch Raven Blvd.
Smyth Bldg., Ste. 403A
Baltimore, MD 21239
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MedStar Union Memorial Hospital
3333 North Calvert St.
Johnston Professional Bldg., Ste. 655
Baltimore, MD 21218
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MedStar Health at Timonium
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MedStar Health Bel Air Medical Center
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MedStar Health at Leisure World Boulevard
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MedStar Health at Mitchellville
12158 Central Ave.
Mitchellville, MD 20721
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MedStar Health at Brandywine
12158 Central Ave.
Mitchellville, MD 20721
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MedStar Pain Management at Takoma
6475 New Hampshire Ave.
Ste. 200A
Hyattsville, MD 20783
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MedStar Health at Lafayette Centre
1133 21st Street, NW
Bldg. 2, 6th Floor
Washington, DC, 20036
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MedStar Washington Hospital Center
110 Irving St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20010
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Additional information
For patients
Our pain management team is here to guide you, making sure you understand you treatment options every step of the way.New patient packet
For more information or to schedule an appointment call 855-812-9406.
Request an appointment