3 Effective Neuropathy Treatments

The nerves in your body allow you to feel different sensations, like pain or pleasure. While this is usually a temporary feeling, if your nerves become damaged, they can cause you to feel pain all the time. This condition is known as neuropathy, and it can be hard to treat.

At Delmarva Pain and Spine Center, our team is ready to help you get treatment for your neuropathy, no matter what the cause. Dr. Sachi Patel is our board-certified pain management doctor who specializes in effective pain management techniques so you can get back to enjoying your life.

What is neuropathy?

Neuropathy is a complex medical problem that happens when the nerves in your body become damaged. You may have heard it called peripheral neuropathy as well. Peripheral neuropathy occurs when the nerves that are located outside of your spinal cord and brain are damaged.

There are actually many different disorders that are under the umbrella of peripheral neuropathy. These conditions come about due to damage to your nervous system. This system is important, because it’s how you get sensory signals from the rest of your body to your brain.

So what exactly causes neuropathy? There are a lot of different issues that can lead to this debilitating disease, some of which include:

• Diabetes
• Infections
• Autoimmune disorders
• Trauma
• Vascular problems
• Medications

Sometimes, the cause of neuropathy can’t be narrowed down to anything specific. In this case, you have neuropathy with an unknown cause. However, the many different types of neuropathy can have uncomfortable symptoms that can disrupt your daily life.

The symptoms that you experience depend on the severity of your neuropathy and what nerves are affected. However, there are some common signs of neuropathy that include:

• Tingling or numbness in your extremities
• Burning, electric-like sensations
• Muscle spasms or cramping
• Extreme sensitivity to touch
• Difficulty feeling pain
• Loss of coordination

Your symptoms may be mild to severe, depending on how far your neuropathy has progressed. It’s important that you seek treatment in the early stages of neuropathy to ensure that you get significant relief.

Can it be treated?

When Dr. Patel sees you for your neuropathy symptoms, she gets blood work and orders other tests to find out what could be causing your neuropathy. This may include an MRI or nerve function testing.

Once Dr. Patel comes to a diagnosis of neuropathy, she discusses your treatment options with you. Unfortunately, neuropathy isn’t able to be cured; but there are treatments that can help you manage your symptoms so you can get back to your busy life with less discomfort.

At Delmarva Pain and Spine Center, our team offers several treatments to help you with your neuropathy. However, three of the most successful and effective treatments for this disorder include:

1. Medications

Dr. Patel may first prescribe medications to deal with the underlying condition that caused the neuropathy in the first place. However, you may also need other medications to ease the uncomfortable symptoms as well.

Effective medication therapy for neuropathy may include a variety of different medications, including antidepressants, pain relievers, or anti-seizure medications. It may take a few tries to get you the perfect combination of medications to get your symptoms under control.

2. Physical therapy

The goal of physical therapy in neuropathy is to increase the strength in your muscles that have become weakened from this disease. Specialized physical therapy exercises can increase your strength, along with improving your range of motion as well.

3. Nerve blocks

Nerve blocks are a minimally invasive form of treatment that Dr. Patel uses to treat nerve damage in different areas of your body. The nerve block involves the problem area being injected with a numbing medication and corticosteroid to help ease your discomfort.

To make sure she’s in the exact area of the nerve damage, Dr. Patel uses x-ray imaging, known as fluoroscopy, to ensure the proper placement of the needle. Once she’s in the right spot, she injects the medications. 

The medications used in the nerve block not only block pain signals from reaching your brain, but also help to reduce inflammation as well.

These neuropathy treatments can be used alone or together to get you the relief you’ve been searching for. Even though your neuropathy can’t be cured, it can be managed successfully with the proper treatments.

If you have neuropathy, we have treatments that can help. Don't hesitate to call our office at 302-355-0900 today. You can also book an appointment with us online today.