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Pain Service
Icon You Are Here YOU ARE HERE › Santa Clara Valley Medical Center - SCVMC (DEP) › Programs & Services › Anesthesiology › Pain Service


The Pain Intervention Services at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center sees a wide spectrum of referrals and treats a variety of chronic pain problems, from head to toe, in all ages. These problems include back and neck pain, joint pains, post herpetic neuralgia, phantom limb pain, various neuropathies,  Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) or Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, headaches, foot pain, muscular pains, fibromyalgia, visceral pain (such as abdominal and pelvic pain), cancer pains, vascular pain, trigeminal neuralgia, failed back syndrome, intra-thecal pumps or stimulators, etc.

Our approach is one that is multidisciplinary, using the model for pain management developed at Stanford. We collaborate with Physical Therapy, Physical Rehabilitation Medicine, Psychiatry, and other specialists including Orthopedic Spine and Neurology.

We have found that some individuals may need more psychological intervention prior to pain interventions.  For these individuals, we prefer they have a primary care physician to better coordinate their follow-up care and to continue to support our pain intervention  recommendations. In the case of medications, we guide and consult with the primary care physicians in writing appropriate prescriptions, and ask them to set up an opioid contract for patients in those cases.

Patients are encouraged to work towards achieving functional improvement, and they are asked to set specific goals, such as returning back to work, caring for their families, becoming involved in the community and participating in regular exercise.  Sometimes chronic pain does not go away completely, but patients do get better. Pain needs to be managed daily, like diabetes or hypertension.

Currently, we see patients on Tuesdays & Wednesdays and perform fluoroscopically guided procedures on Wednesday afternoons. A Board Certified pain specialist/ anesthesiologist oversees Pain Intervention Services. If you have any questions, please contact the Department of Anesthesiology; (408) 885-2085. Referrals may be faxed to (408) 885-5758.