When a painful condition warrants special attention, your primary care physician or specialist may refer you to the Sumner Pain Clinic. Medicare patients are eligible for the clinic’s services, but do have to be referred by a physician.
Interventional Pain Management
Medical School:
Tulane University School of Medicine
New Orleans, Louisiana
Fellowship:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee
Residency:
University of California – San Francisco Medical Center
San Francisco, California
Graduate Education:
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, Massachusetts
Education:
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN
Cumberland University
Nashville, Tennessee
Western Kentucky University
Bowling Green, KY
Certification:
American Association of Nurse Practitioner
Epidurals
The epidural space surrounds the nerves as they exit the spinal cord. In some patients the nerves can be compressed and inflamed by a bulging disc or a tight spinal canal (spinal stenosis). At Sumner Pain Clinic, we inject steroids into the epidural space to help reduce swelling and inflammation, which often leads to decreased pain. Epidural steroids may be injected anywhere along the spine, from the neck to the lower back depending upon the location of the pain.
Conditions often treated by epidural steroids include:
Other nerve treatments include Herpes Zoster (Acute Shingles Pain), Postherpetic Neuralgia, Sacroiliac Joint Injections, and Trigger Point Injections.
Ablation procedures
Low back and neck pain is often caused by facet joints in the back of the spine that usually occurs while standing, walking, twisting, or bending. A radio frequency ablation destroys the nerves sending pain signals to your brain and can alleviate back pain caused by inflamed and arthritic joints in your back. This therapy can be used in other painful parts of the body as well. The procedure is minimally invasive and can avoid the need for more invasive surgical procedures.
Joint injections
Joints are a common cause for pain throughout your body. Joint injections target painful joints to decrease inflammation from painful and arthritic joints.
Spinal cord stimulation
Spinal cord stimulation is a therapy that is used block pain signals at the level of the spinal cord before they can reach the brain. Small wires placed near the spinal cord and controlled by a small devices the size of a pacemaker can be used to treat back, leg, knee, neck, and arm pain.
The Sumner Pain Clinic also offers other treatment procedures. For information on other procedures, please contact the Sumner Pain Clinic at 615-328-5089.
Before visiting Sumner Pain Clinic, you will need:
You can take regular medications, with some exceptions. Patients on Coumadin therapy should be off medications three days prior to the appointment. You should always talk with your primary physician before going off any of your medications. If you have questions regarding Coumadin therapy, call the Sumner Pain Clinic nurse at (615) 328-5089.
Below, we have provided new patient forms that you can download and print. We hope these resources will help you prepare for your appointment with us.