Suite 201, Level 2, 2 Technology Place
Macquarie University NSW 2109
Chronic pain is common and complex
The Pain Neuromodulation Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic treating any kind of refractory pain. Neuromodulation makes intractable pain more than tractable.
Chronic pain is a substantial cause of disability, lost worker productivity and medical cost in the general population.
Symptoms
Symptoms associated with chronic pain include:
- abdominal/pelvic pain
- cancer-related pain
- limb pain and phantom limb pain
- lower back pain, even after surgery or multiple operations (ie failed back surgery syndrome)
- thalamic pain, trigeminal, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, and other types of complex facial pain.
When to see your doctor
Pain is defined as chronic when generally lasting a period longer than three to six months, from an injury or illness. In some cases, it can be ‘idiopathic’, meaning that no source of pain or initial trigger can be identified.
To book an appointment at Macquarie Neurosurgery:
- call +61 (2) 9812 3900,
- free call 1300 MACQUARIE (1300 622 782)
- email admin@mqneurosurgery.com.
Typical appointments are on a Friday of the month, in the combined Pain Neuromodulation Clinic.
Urgent consultations can be arranged separately with Professor Di Ieva and/or Associate Professor Boesel at Macquarie Neurosurgery.
Chronic pain is diagnosed via:
- clinical diagnosis
- imaging (including MRI and bone scan)
- neurophysiology, including nerve conduction studies.
Medications and several conservative treatments, including physiotherapy and psychotherapy, are the state-of-art to treatment for chronic pain. When medications fail, further treatment (or combination of treatments) are trialled, including local injections, radiofrequency, morphine pumps, etc.
MQ Health Pain Neuromodulation Clinic offers a range of other treatments for patients including:
- spinal cord stimulator (also with different modalities, such as high-frequency and closed-loop), peripheral nerve stimulator, multifidus muscle stimulator for lower back pain, and brain cortical stimulator
- implant of morphine pumps
- nerve decompression and neurolysis (including spinal nerves as well as cranial nerves, such as trigeminal nerve microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia)
- percutaneous and minimally-invasive ‘open-surgery’ treatments
- Gamma Knife radiosurgery (for example, for trigeminal neuralgia).
Neuromodulation
Neuromodulation is based on a device delivering electricity on the spinal cord, to modulate the neural circuitry related to the pain pathway and to reduce or even cancel pain, with a remarkable improvement of patients’ quality of life.
Electric stimulators can be put on the spinal cord, on the nerves, or directly in the brain. The electrode is connected to a battery, which is positioned under the skin, similar to a cardiac pacemaker’s operation.
At Macquarie University Hospital, we are one of the few centres in Australia to perform motor cortex stimulation for face/arm/leg/hemi-body pain. We have also been the first in Australasia to successfully perform a somatosensory cortex stimulator implant.
We perform pre-operative analysis of the brain connections and intra-operative neuromonitoring, to improve the results and make the operation safer.
We are Australian leaders in the research field of brain connectomics as well as artificial intelligence applied to the clinical neurosciences, including to the study of pain.