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Pain Clinic

The Pain Clinic at Asan Medical Center provides comprehensive and precise care for patients with acute and chronic pain. The clinic specializes in interventional pain management, primarily targeting musculoskeletal, neuropathic, and cancer-related pain. In particular, using C-arm fluoroscopy and ultrasound-guided equipment, the clinic delivers accurate diagnoses and minimally invasive treatments tailored to each patient’s condition.

To effectively treat complex pain disorders such as spinal and cancer-related pain, the clinic operates a multidisciplinary care system that brings together specialists from anesthesiology and pain medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, radiology, rehabilitation medicine, oncology, and psychiatry. As one of Asia’s leading institutions, Asan Medical Center has played a pivotal role in developing innovative pain treatment techniques and establishing evidence-based clinical protocols.

Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Patient-centered care is achieved through collaboration among specialists from anesthesiology and pain medicine, rehabilitation medicine, radiology, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, oncology, and psychiatry. For patients with complex pain conditions, individualized treatment plans are developed by taking into account the underlying causes of pain, functional impairments, and each patient’s personal goals, providing an integrated approach from diagnosis to interventions, medication, and functional rehabilitation.

Image-Guided Interventions and Advanced Techniques

Most interventional pain procedures are performed under real-time fluoroscopic (C-arm) or ultrasound guidance to enhance precision and safety. The clinic offers a wide range of procedures, including epidural injections, peripheral nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, sympathetic nerve blocks, percutaneous epidural adhesiolysis (neuroplasty), and spinal cord stimulator implantation.

Conditions Treated

  • Spinal Pain (Cervical, Thoracic, and Lumbar Regions)

    Chronic spinal pain caused by conditions such as herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and facet joint syndrome is managed through epidural steroid injections, facet joint injections, medial branch blocks, and radiofrequency ablation.

  • Neuropathic Pain

    For conditions such as postherpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), we combine medical management with interventional procedures to achieve optimal pain control and promote functional recovery.

  • Cancer Pain

    For patients with advanced cancer experiencing refractory pain, interventional procedures such as nerve blocks, sympathetic neurolysis, and intrathecal drug delivery systems are employed to provide effective pain relief.

  • Joint and Peripheral Nerve Pain

    Pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee, shoulder, or hip, as well as postoperative pain, is effectively managed using image-guided intra-articular injections, nerve blocks, and radiofrequency treatment of articular branches.

Main Clinical Services

Medical Management

Depending on the patient’s condition, multimechanistic medical management is implemented, and, in combination with interventional treatments, pain is effectively controlled. In particular, emphasis is placed on the appropriate use of opioids and combination strategies with adjuvant medications to provide safe and sustainable treatment.

Interventional Procedures

Fluoroscopy-Guided Procedures

  • Published numerous studies on anesthetic pharmacology, including population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models based on nonlinear mixed effects modeling (NONMEM) for hypnotics and analgesics such as propofol, remimazolam, remifentanil, oxycodone, and fentanyl.
  • Published studies analyzing biosignals to quantitatively assess the pharmacodynamic effects of anesthetic and analgesic agents.
  • Conducted numerous clinically oriented studies focusing on practical topics such as pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics modeling in specific patient groups, evaluation of explicit and implicit memory during anesthesia, development of pain-depth assessment algorithms, and quantitative analysis of drug interactions between hypnotics and analgesics.

Academic and Educational Activities

  • Epidural Steroid Injection
  • Selective Nerve Root Block
  • Medial Branch Block or Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA)
  • Facet Joint Injection
  • Sympathetic Nerve Block or Neurolysis
  • Percutaneous Neuroplasty

Ultrasound-Guided Procedures

  • Stellate Ganglion Block
  • Paravertebral Nerve Block
  • Peripheral Nerve Block
  • Genicular Nerve Block
  • Intra-articular Injection
  • Bursa Injection
  • Trigger Point Injection

Advanced Procedures

  • Cooled RFA
  • Balloon Neuroplasty
  • Intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET)
  • Spinal Cord Stimulation
  • Intrathecal Drug Delivery

Multidisciplinary Education and Research

The clinic serves as a core institution for the training of pain medicine fellows and residents, operating a structured education program. In addition, through active clinical research and outcome analysis, the clinic has published numerous papers in SCI-indexed journals and contributes to the standardization of treatments and the development of clinical guidelines.

Clinical Performance (as of 2023)

  • Outpatient visits: 35,102 cases
  • Fluoroscopy-guided procedures: 9,884 cases
  • Ultrasound-guided procedures: 5,423 cases
  • Neuroplasty procedures: 421 cases
  • Interventional procedures for cancer-related pain: 1,206 cases
  • Spinal cord stimulator trials and implantations: 47 cases

Clinical Achievements

▪ World First : Clinical Efficacy of Genicular Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) Demonstrated (2011)

Asan Medical Center was the first in the world to demonstrate the efficacy of genicular nerve radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in patients with knee osteoarthritis, introducing a non-surgical treatment alternative for chronic knee pain globally.

▪ World First : Development of Balloon Neuroplasty (2012)

Asan Medical Center was the first in the world to develop balloon neuroplasty, demonstratin long-term pain relief and functional recovery in patients with lumbar radicular pain unresponsive to conventional treatments through expansion of the perineural space and adhesion release.