Conference on pain management

Chronic pain costs society $500-$600 billion annually

Ludhiana, October 7, 2012:The Department of Anaesthesia and Pain medicine , SPS Apollo Hospitals, Ludhiana under the aegis of Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists , Ludhiana Chapter  organised  a conference on pain management today.

This one day CME was attended by over 120 anaesthetists and pain specialists from Ludhiana and the whole of Punjab and the sessions were taken up by eminent national faculty from Delhi and Mumbai focusing on varying aspects of pain like, management of acute postoperative pain, cancer pain, back pain etc.

The aim of this programme was to bring about awareness about this emerging specialty amongst the doctors and also to demonstrate the newer strategies and therapeutic modalities in combating the menace of acute and intractable chronic pain.

Dr Gaurav Kuthiala, the organising secretary of the conference said that pain is a major healthcare problem worldwide, although acute pain may reasonably be considered a symptom of disease but chronic and recurrent pain is a specific healthcare problem, a disease in its own right.

He said that pain is grossly undertreated in India and there is minimal awareness amidst the doctors as well as patients regarding optimum pain management and this leads to increase in the suffering of the patients as undertreated acute leads to postop complications and delayed recovery from surgeries whereas chronic pain exacts a significant toll in the form of psychological problems, depression, lostwages, productivity and overall enjoyment of life.

It is estimated that chronic pain costs society $500-$600 billion annually.

Dr Kuthiala said that more needs to be done to meet the challenges of chronic pain and that pain research and management should be one of the top priorities of the medical community.