To be well-prepared for your consultation
You might get at this consult through different recommendations:
- your general practitioner;
- a specialist (rhumatologist, reeducation doctor, neurologist, orthopedist,…);
- another Hospital or Clinic;
- a pain unit (including psychiatrics, pain doctors, neurosurgeons, neurosurgeons, anesthesiologist, …).
A surgical assessment takes place in the Day-Hospital. It includes a pain evaluation, a neuropsychological evaluation, spinal IRMs, a SEP (somatosensory evoked potentials) in order to evaluate nervous influx conduction on a sensory pathway, and a dental panoramic.
The indication is set after a multidisciplinary meeting, then an anesthesia consult takes place.There is, over the course of the surgical assessment, a consult with a referent pain nurse.
The indication is kept if the neuropathic pain is confirmed (with a score of DN4 > 4/10), if the pain is at least a year old, and if it act refractorily to well-conducted medical treatments. Moreover, you should not present cognitive disorders, psychiatric disorders, or major personality disorders.
You are then informed of the staff’s decision. Other than the modalities of the surgery and the pain’s support system, the team will define goals that are outright possible, with you. It will be clearly pointed out to you that the intervention will not “cure” the disease, but that it will act against its symptoms.
