Comprehensive Pain Management Solutions for Every Patient [Brian Kvamme]
This video features Brian Kvamme, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, discussing how pain management works and how personalized treatment plans help patients regain function and quality of life. The video explains what pain is, when to seek care and how interventional pain management can reduce reliance on surgery and long-term medications.
- Understanding What Pain Is: Pain is both a sensory and emotional experience that varies from patient to patient and can present in many forms such as aching, stabbing or shooting.
- When to Address Pain: Pain should not be ignored because it is the body’s way of signaling that something is wrong and may require medical evaluation.
- Personalized Treatment Plans: Pain management uses tailored approaches that may include conservative therapies, injections or interventional procedures based on individual needs.
- Interventional Pain Options: Procedures such as epidurals, joint injections and radiofrequency ablation are used to manage pain while helping patients avoid surgery.
- Reducing Opioid Use: Interventional pain management aims to minimize long-term narcotic use by treating the source of pain rather than masking symptoms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Video Transcript
My name is Brian Kvamme. I'm a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and I do pain management as well as anesthesia at Brookings Health System. I grew up in Pipestone, Minnesota. I went to South Dakota State University for my undergrad, and then I went to Saint Mary's University of Minnesota for my anesthesia training. I then went to the University of South Florida for my advanced pain management fellowship, and that is what brought me into pain management at Brookings Health System.
What is pain?
Pain is an unpleasant emotional or sensory experience that can be different from each patient to patient. You can describe it as throbbing, aching, shooting, stabbing, and it really is different from patient to patient. And we see that, and it could be, in pain management as well as in the OR for different surgeries, or especially on the labor and delivery room as well.
In what ways does pain affect a person's daily life?
Pain impacts people's lives because it can be debilitating and it can affect how they go through their day-to-day struggles and how they live their lives. It's also a different sensory and emotional experience from each patient to patient.
Should you ignore pain?
No, you should not ignore pain because pain is the body's way of telling you that something is wrong. If you do have pain, you can either see your primary care provider or potentially come and see us as well.
What conditions do you treat with interventional pain management?
In pain management, we treat neck pain, low back pain, axial spine pain, which is essentially the whole spine, sacroiliac joint pain, muscle pain, non-operative joint pain, joint pain that maybe you aren't qualified for surgery or don't wanna have surgery. Those are the most common things that we treat in our clinic.
What procedures and treatments do you offer?
Each person's pain is different, but we will set up a tailored plan for that patient so we can treat and manage that pain. Some of the most common procedures that we perform are epidurals of the neck and low back, as well as sacroiliac joint injections, trigger point injections, and joint injections. I also do radiofrequency ablation of the spine, which includes the neck and low back. And those are some of the most common procedures that we do in our clinic.
What treatments are used before interventional pain management?
Not everyone who sees us at Brookings Health System is gonna receive an injection or an interventional pain management procedure. Typically, we need them to go and attempt conservative measures, which can include medications or therapy prior to doing anything, like injections or interventional pain. It's been proven that the sooner that we do the injections and the sooner that we do the imaging, they then are more likely to receive surgery. And our goal with interventional pain and pain management in general is to keep patients off of the operating table. If someone can go to physical therapy and do six weeks of therapy and not need anything from us besides that, I think that's a win for everybody.
When is the right time for a pain management procedure?
Once they've gone through that process and they have attempted those therapies and medications and they're still having pain, then we will typically do some sort of injection. That being said, sometimes when the patient does come see us at the clinic, they've already been through that and attempted physical therapy and chiropractic care or any other modalities that they deem necessary, and we will actually order an injection that same day.
How do you help patients who are anxious about a pain treatment?
Patients are nervous. I always say, if you're not nervous, you're not ready. It's kinda what I like to tell patients. I also tell my son that when he's gonna play a game. Okay, being nervous is part of life. However, it's our job to make those patients feel comfortable, talk them through it. We use lidocaine, which is a numbing medication to help prevent some of that or a lot of that discomfort. Doing interventional pain management procedures, it isn't zero pain. You know, it will be a little bit of discomfort. But the goal of the intervention is to get them on with their daily lives so that they can move on and enjoy their life.
How does interventional pain management help patients avoid opioid and narcotic use?
Goal of the pain management clinic is for patients not to be on long-term narcotics or other medications. Our goal is to get patients off of those medications. Narcotics are not good for long term, as well as the addiction properties that come with them, and it has been proven that it does not actually work for back pain, especially chronically. And so what we can do with interventional pain is hopefully treat that pain so that they don't have to use narcotics. However, narcotics sometimes need to be used for short-term purposes, for those few weeks while the patient is in severe pain.
How do patients arrange a visit to see you?
Patients can come see me through a variety of ways, but typically, we need a referral. You can contact your primary care provider, other healthcare professional, chiropractor, and they can send a referral to us. Sometimes that can be done through the computer, if they're part of the Brookings Health System or Avera system. We also have a referral sheet that their providers will send to us and fax to us, and we'll get you scheduled in the clinic.
Why do you recommend Brookings Health System?
At Brookings Health System, we take care of our coworkers, our neighbors, our friends, and our family, and that's what makes Brookings Health System so special.