The Leading Edge in Pain Management
It’s far from hyperbole to say that if you’re in need of help managing your pain, you won’t find more qualified physicians than Drs. Don and Mark Jones of Knoxville-based Pain Medicine of the South.
For starters, their Curricula Vitae testify to this fact with references to prestigious universities and medical colleges—such as Baylor, Cornell, and Harvard—along with an expansive list of professional associations and societies. The doctors have also been given a host of awards and honors, and have published a variety of research articles in their field. And while this speaks, to some extent, to their truly unrivaled expertise in pain management, it’s far from the whole story.
That’s because in their field, it’s simply not enough to rely on the experiences of the past. As Mark explains, “It’s important to recognize that interventional pain is a specialty that has only been around since the late 1990s. With the advent of technological advances, such as minimally invasive approaches and robotic surgery, we’re continually making discoveries. It was not long ago, for instance, that pain management revolved around highly invasive surgeries and medication. Today, these procedures are now accomplished through small needle incisions and x-ray guidance.”
Don has been practicing medicine for 42 years and opened Pain Medicine of the South five years ago. His son, Mark, joined him last year. And since day one, the practice has been dedicated to helping patients identify and manage chronic pain. “Our mission,” Don says, “is to provide efficient, effective, and compassionate pain management for a broad range of ailments and pain syndromes. We accomplish this through leading-edge, medical pain management techniques.”
Don points out that these advancements in pain management techniques, fortunately, are achieving dramatically improved success rates with fewer complications than prior management, which often included surgery and reliance on pills. The complications from open surgery are obviously avoided, Mark mentions, as medical pain management today is much less invasive. “We perform a wide range of procedures, from epidural injections, spinal cord stimulators, and nerve ablations to a ground-breaking new procedure referred to as MILD.”
MILD, or Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression, is a procedure that, until recently, required highly invasive surgery. Today, Mark can, as he puts it, “access the spine and remove all of the bulky tissue that often causes back and leg pain with just a small incision and a very short recovery.”
Just how effective is the MILD procedure? “About six months ago, I had a patient come to us from California; a rock star who, let’s just say, has been around for quite some time,” Mark recounts. “He was in such pain that he relied heavily on medication and couldn’t walk more than about 10 feet without having to stop, sit down, and rest.” An MRI revealed that the aging rocker was suffering from severe stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal.
The night following his MILD procedure, the patient was “out doing karaoke” and two weeks later came in to the practice to tell Mark that he had no longer had any pain whatsoever and no longer felt the need to take pain medication. “‘I don’t need to come and see you anymore,’ he told me, which in our business is exactly what you want to hear.”
Pain Medicine of the South 110 N. Campbell Station Road Knoxville, TN 37934 (865) 672-5070 painmedos.com