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CT Spine & Pain Center at
BristolHospital Brewster Rd., P.O. Box 977 Bristol, CT 06011-0977 860-585-3040
Accredited
MANA
EMENT
ISSUE ONE
Welcome to the newsletter of the Con-
The cliscographer inserts a needle in the patient's back into thc center of the disc.
necticut Spine and Pain Center at
Radioglaphic dve is then injected into thc clisc, and if injecting the dye recreates the paticnt's normal pain (concordant), it is then inferrccl that the specific disc is the source of pain firr the patient. If the pain is unlike their normal
Bristol Hospital. Pain medicine is an exciting and gtowing medical specialty that deals with the diagnosis and
treatmerit of acute and chronic pain conditions. Ovet recent years many chernical and
anatomic pain pathways have been more cleady identified. Newer medi-
cations and techniques in interventional pain medicine have helped to identiS' and to reduce or
Discography Annette Macannuco, MD A-.\'pine t; Pain Center
The CT Spine and Pain Center at
Discography is a diagnostic test perf<rrmed t<r view and assesses the internal structure ofa disc. This procedure is most frcqucntll'usecl to determine if degenerative disc cliscase is the cause of a patient's pain (discogenic krw
Bristol Hospital is the only CARF ac-
back pain).
credited pain centet in Connecticut, providing a multidisciplinary ap-
,\
eliminate sources of pain,
proach to the diagnosis and treatrnent
of pain. I(/e hope that this newsletter provides you with some insight into the specialty ofpain medicine. Jonatban Kost
Medical Director
Jonathan Kost, MD MedicalDirector
Annette Macannuco, MD Pain Management Specialist
Frank Lee, MD Pain Management Specialist
Deborah Rosenberg, Ph.D. Pain Management Psychologist
Rafael Cordova, RPT Physical Therapist
tliscogram ser\ es as a prc-opcrativc invcstisational tool and is perfrrrmed on
patients who have not responded
pain (discordant) it can be inferred that cvcn though the clisc mav krok degenerated on an N{RI scan, it is in fact not the source of the patient'.s pain. Thc tcst itsclf is painlul because the patient needs to bc awakc ancl au'are in older to tell the cliscoerapher what kind of pain is ecncratccl b1'thc injection. Afier the procedure, (lT Scan is utilizecl lor lurther cr aluation of thc discs. Discoqcnic pain mat be treated surgicalh' or bv a lcss inr.asive trcatment such as nucleoplas6'.
Contained Disk Herniation
t<r
consef\.ative treatmcnt. The procedure als<r identifies the rnoqphokrgical appearance of the disc from eadl'deecncrative changes, such as fron.r ring-shapcd tcars to the disc with leakage ofcontrast to thc epiclural space.
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