Our Services
General Private Medicine
Pain Management
3fivetwo are here to help when your lifestyle is compromised by chronic pain. Our pain management service utilises a wide range of treatments to provide the best possible pain medicine to improve your physical, psychological and social functioning.
Using the latest in clinical and diagnostic procedures, our Pain Medicine Consultants will review your previous treatment, conduct a physical examination, provide a thorough evaluation of your pain condition and then develop a comprehensive, individualised treatment management plan.
Pain management generally benefits from a multidisciplinary approach that includes pharmacologic measures (analgesics and pain modifying drug therapies), non-pharmacologic measures (such as interventional procedures, physical therapy and physical exercise, application of ice and/or heat), and psychological measures (such as cognitive therapy). Interventional procedures - typically used for chronic back pain - include: epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, neurolytic blocks, Spinal Cord Stimulators and intrathecal drug delivery system implants.
The 3fivetwo pain medicineservice specialises in interventional techniques in the management of:
- Back pain
- Sciatica
- Facial pain
- Neuropathic pain.
Our full range of interventional techniques available may include:
- Intervertebral discs and facetal joint injections,
- Stellate ganglion blocks
- Epidural blocks
- Pulsed radiofrequency for management of intractable pain
- Insertion of spinal cord stimulators
- Injection into large and small joints
Consultants: (click name to view bio)
- Dr M Stafford
Dr M Stafford
Michael Stafford is a consultant in anaesthesia and chronic pain management at the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald. He is a graduate of the Queen’s University Belfast (MB, BCh BAO 1993). On completion of higher specialist training in anaesthesia in 2003, he completed a fellowship in chronic pain management in Toronto, one of the largest pain management centres in Canada and was awarded a Medical Doctorate in 2004. He was made a foundation fellow of the Faculty of Pain Management (College of Anaesthetists, Ireland) in 2008.
The majority of the chronic pain workload involves management of mechanical low back pain. Other common conditions managed include neck and shoulder pain, sciatica, coccygeal pain, fibromyalgia and chronic headache. Dr Stafford can offer a combination of medication and injection based therapies for these and a number of other chronic pain conditions.
