Saroja Prime Health Introduces an Advanced Center for Chronic Pain Management in Bangalore

Source: Business Wire India

Saroja Prime Health Pvt Ltd, a company incorporated by a US based physician couple has launched a pain management center, Reliv Center for Chronic Pain Management, in Bangalore. The center will provide the latest treatment modalities using the most modern medical equipment for safe and effective management of chronic debilitating pain to Bangaloreans.

“India has a very high prevalence of chronic pain” says the company founder-director, Dr. Madhu Yelameli who runs a successful advanced pain management center in the US. “Whenever I visit India I am constantly approached by people suffering from chronic pain without recourse to an effective treatment” he adds.  Chronic low back pain, neck pain, knee pain, headache, shoulder pain, neuropathy and certain other unique pain conditions like reflex sympathetic dystrophy and of course cancer pain affect almost 30% of the Indian adult population. Though living with chronic debilitating pain has been a thing of the past in most of the developed parts of the world, in India this medical specialty is almost unknown.

Typically chronic pain is managed by anesthesiologists who have undergone super specialization in pain management. They are trained to use multiple modalities that include potent pain medications, effective injection procedures and state of the art device implants to conquer severe intractable pain. Reliv Center for Chronic Pain Management offers a wide range of procedures from simple epidural injections to radiofrequency nerve ablation procedures to spinal cord stimulator implants and spinal morphine pump implants for the most debilitating chronic and cancer pains. “We perform these procedures using image guidance either with live fluoroscopy or ultrasound to achieve accuracy and safety” says Dr. Vishwanath Siddalingaiah, UK trained Medical Director for Reliv Center for Chronic pain Management. Highly skilled physicians can perform these procedures quickly maintaining efficacy and safety. “This is the reason our Center employs fully trained and qualified physicians willing to relocate to India so our people get world class treatment right here in Bangalore” adds Dr. Shashirekha Shetty, a director of the company. They dream of facilitating creation of super specialty programs in Indian universities in future to train local anesthesiologists in this upcoming field.

Patients who have tried traditional methods like physical therapy and basic pain medications can be good candidates for interventional pain management. Even patients who have already tried spine or joint surgeries and continue to have pain can be taken care of with these modalities. Patients who are not candidates for surgery or do not wish to undergo a surgery can also be treated by pain specialists.  Dr. Yelameli says “with effective treatment we see a large number of pain patients who had previously given up hope leading near normal lives keeping their jobs, taking care of their families and pursuing activities they enjoy doing”.

Such services however have been hard to come by for the people in Bangalore. “Though some corporate hospitals have started offering these services, access to and awareness among pain sufferers and referring physicians is minimal. Physicians specializing in this field have to compete for limited resources in large hospitals that increases the cost of the services they offer. In contrast, at standalone pain centers patients are evaluated by expert physicians and offered immediate relief using interventional procedures at the same visit” says Mr. Mohan Pothur, the Chief Operating Officer of the company. Most patients can leave the center with relief within hours. All the procedures and surgeries done for chronic pain at this Center are same day procedures not needing hospitalization.