Surgical Management of Pain and Neuromodulation

Our team of specialists is dedicated to evaluating the exact nature of your pain, identifying the cause behind it and determining the best way to treat it.

Facial pain can be in the form of a sharp, stabbing, electric-like sensation, but can also be a dull and aching type of pain. Typical facial pain, trigeminal neuralgia, is caused by a vessel compressing the nerve at its origin in the brainstem. Other causes of facial pain can occur following nerve injuries such as during tooth extraction, or secondary to other conditions like multiple sclerosis. Facial pain could also originate from the jaw, muscles, temporomandibular joint, sinus infection or migraines. All these conditions need to be excluded before reaching a diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia.

Facial pain is typically treated with medication, but failure to respond to medicine, or side effects related to medication, can create a condition of extreme pain and suffering. There are multiple surgical options for treating facial pain, including microvascular decompression, which aims to remove the compressing vessel from against the nerve at its origin in the brainstem. Less invasive treatment options include radiofrequency ablation and radiosurgery. Baptist Health Neurosurgery Arkansas also offers advanced technological solutions such as trigeminal nerve stimulation and motor cortex stimulation.

A key component of successful treatment is accurate diagnosis. Our team will work to identify the exact nature and cause of the pain and will lay out a comprehensive plan of therapy tailored to your specific condition.

Persistent pain following back surgery or cervical spine surgery can be significantly disabling. Spinal cord stimulation is a procedure that allows the delivery of a small amount of electricity to the spinal cord, disrupting the pain pathway and alleviating the pain.  The process involves an initial trial that allows the patient to assess and evaluate the degree of pain relief from the procedure, and how it will reflect on their overall quality of life.  If the trial is successful, a permanent implant is placed, programmed and adjusted according to the patient’s pain intensity and location.

Uncontrolled seizures can cause a significant burden on both the patient and their loved ones. Our group of fellowship-trained neurosurgeons works with neurologists and epileptologists to help identify patients with underlying conditions that might benefit from surgery to help control their seizures. With the use of state-of-the-art localization and navigation techniques and monitoring, we are able to identify focal areas of the brain that could be safely resected to help control seizures. Other alternatives such as vagal nerve stimulation and medication can help with seizure control.

Since its introduction in the 1980s, deep brain stimulation has expanded and become a powerful treatment option for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor or dystonia.

Through implanting electrodes in specific areas of the brain, deep brain stimulation provides a very focused small electric current that helps to modulate and modify abnormal brain connectivity to a more normal function. This therapy has proven to be effective in reducing tremors and improving movement as well as reducing medication dose in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Our fellowship-trained neurosurgeons at Baptist Health Neurosurgery Arkansas, in collaboration with neurologists, neuropsychologists and rehabilitation therapists, have helped to identify patients who would qualify and benefit from deep brain stimulation. Baptist Health provides state-of-the-art navigation to help increase accuracy of placement and provide optimum therapy.