From Weill Cornell Pain Medicine News
New York, NY (November 5, 2014) – The current issue (November 2014) of the journal Anesthesiology features research findings from a team of Anesthesiologists and Pain Medicine specialists that includes Weill Cornell’s Julie H.Y. Huang, M.D., M.B.A, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, and member of the Division of Pain Medicine. Dr. Huang’s research offers physicians new information and options when treating patients suffering from neck pain.
Dr. Huang was part of a multi-center, randomized, clinical research study led by Dr. Steven P. Cohen of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and that included researchers from academic medical centers across the United States and in Europe. The study examined the comparative effectiveness of non-surgical treatments for cervical radicular pain (neck pain and arm pain). Currently, physicians treat cervical radicular pain using either epidural steroid injections, conservative treatments (medications and physical therapy), or a combination of both. All are effective, but there is little understanding of which works best. Dr. Huang’s research sought to answer this question.
Dr. Huang’s team discovered that each of the three treatments (steroid injections, conservative treatments, and combination treatments) were of equal effectiveness in treating arm pain, but that combination therapy offered some advantages in treating neck pain. The team suggests that an interdisciplinary approach to treating cervical radicular pain offers the best hope for improving patient outcomes, but they also note that further research is needed to confirm these findings.
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