Chronic Pain Management

Medical Investigations for Chronic Pain

Often during periods of long-term pain, patients will naturally ask for a referral for medical scans as a way of explaining and understanding their discomfort (i.e. “something must be wrong!”). While medical investigations certainly have an important place in injury diagnosis, they may also be potentially misleading. As part of effective Chronic Pain Management, Altaira’s physiotherapists will always thoroughly run through scan findings in detail to explain what is clinically relevant compared to incidental findings which might look scary.

You are not your scans! Pain does not necessarily equate to tissue damage.

Technological advances have resulted in highly sensitive and detailed medical imagery now being available in the form of X-rays, MRI, and CT scans, just to name a few. While these have brought about many positive changes in terms of obtaining an accurate diagnosis for acute injuries, they have also led to some unintended consequences—particularly in the context of Chronic Pain Management for conditions such as lower back, shoulder, and knee pain.

Throughout a person’s lifetime, they will undergo normal age-related changes. These may be visible (e.g. wrinkled skin) or invisible (e.g. chronic body structure changes). What we often see on scans can be thought of as “wrinkles on the inside”, in that these findings are normal age-related changes, but should not necessarily result in pain. Examples of this include “disc degeneration”, “rotator cuff tears”, or “meniscus tears”. While these are often seen on scans, they are not necessarily considered to be significant. Multiple studies have illustrated that people with and without pain often have similar results on scans. This highlights the importance of a comprehensive Chronic Pain Management approach that looks beyond imaging and focuses on the whole person.