Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care

Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care

The Etherdome is one of the most famous symbols of medical care in the United States. Counted as a National Historic Landmark in the US, the Etherdome is the venue for medical conferences at Massachusetts General Hospital. Located at the Etherdome, the department of Anesthesia and Critical Care is where patients come to find treatment for pain and chronic pain.

Some of the key issues that the department aims to treat include cancer pain and general pain. The department of anesthesia and critical care are a pioneering group of medical specialists who are dedicated to treating pain in their world famous pain center by using alternative methods such as acupuncture, which have been known to alleviate the pain of patients who come to the Etherdome.

How cancer pain works and what the Etherdome is doing to combat it
The feeling of pain is one of the most common feelings that human beings and animals share. Scientists have found that being in pain and feeling in pain is connected to cancer. Cancer, and all the variant types of this disease afflict humans by causing their bones pain. At the department's pain center, doctors are working hard to figure out which treatments work to alleviate the pain for patients who had cancer. A thrilling example of how the department is fighting against cancer-caused pain includes spinal drug delivery (SDD). This complex system works to fight pain in the following ways: it helps to treat refractory pain.

The system works to have a better grasp over pain control. Getting control over pain is absolutely critical to making a cancer sufferer feel better over pain. This is where the Etherdome pain center's research is important. The spinal drug delivery uses innovative pump technology where the pain alleviation drugs are channelled through a stream to the cancer patient's spine. Clearly since the 2,000 years since medicine has been worked on, the Etherdome's work proves that innovation is the most important aspect of getting rid of pain.

How other pain disorders are treated
The Etherdome also works to treat other types of pain. One famous pain disorder is arthritis. Thought to be a pain disorder that plagues the elderly, there are more cases of younger people getting arthritis or similar types of joint pain. The pain center at the department of anesthesia and critical care wants to find other methods to make it easier to live with joint pain. Arthritis is known to change how people can do simple things such as going to the shop or walking a dog. Reducing the stress on joints and ligaments because of the pain that painful joint disorders bring is important to the ethos of the Etherdome department's work.

Another source of pain for many people is the common headache. When headaches, migraines or in more serious cases, neuralgia comes over a patient, it can feel extremely difficult to get through the day. The pain that headache patients feel is another aspect of the department's work that is treated through ideas such as cognitive behavioral therapy. This therapy works to relax the muscles inside the skull of the patient, in the hope that the effects the headache or neuralgia is having on the brain will be reduced. Other brain related pain disorders that the department is known to treat include diabetic neuropathy and post-herpetic neuralgia.

The future
The fight against pain disorders is not a tall order for the Etherdome department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at Massachusetts General Hospital. The chronic pain disorders that the department are fighting are being dissected using a variety of tools and activities including consultation sessions, therapies and research. As the department continues to train and research more into the fields of pain disorders and cancer pain, the future is bright for patients who are trying to feel better.