Consultant in Pain Medicine
PA - Lesley Wilson
nick.paindoctor@outlook.com
0161 495 7008
Consultant in Pain Medicine
DR NICK FRASER
MBBS FRCA FFPMRCA
Scope of Practice
Spinal pain is my forte, as I feel it is this area that Pain Consultants have the most to offer with a series of proven effective treatments for certain conditions. This includes neck pain, low back pain, sacro-iliac pain, and sciatica. In many cases patients are managed jointly with Neurosurgeons or Sports medicine specialists. This shared care has many advantages to the patient and the doctor, a better overview of the condition can be achieved, and a realistic plan of management can be made.
Often injections treatments are used in place of surgery, or when surgery is not considered favourable. Keeping patients under a wider team achieves better results for the patient.
This team approach hinges around our MDT (Multi-Disciplinary Team), this comprises
Neurosurgeons, Pain doctors, Sport medicine doctors, and Neuro-radiologists. We meet every fortnight to discuss clinical cases confidentially to seek advice and plan management. This set up is rare in the Private sector, and at the time of writing is the only such set up outside of London. I expect in the future it will become a standard way of working.
For many years I have worked closely with the leading Neurosurgeons in Manchester, including Professor Andrew King, Mr Scott Rutherford, Mr John Leach, Mr Ankur Saxena, Mr Vivek Josan, and Professor Omar Pathmanaban.
So what happens when you see a Pain Consultant?
It all starts with an initial assessment, finding out more about you, your pain problem, how it affects
you. I also want to learn more about your past medical history, medications, and treatments and
investigations to date. Having some of these details with you when you attend is helpful as often we
do not have this information to hand. Usually a physical examination is required then together we
can discuss the problem together and plan the next step.
What Treatments are Available?
It usually focuses on intervention, i.e. procedures that I can offer to reduce your pain. Sometimes
there aren’t any interventional options unfortunately, but I will try to find something to help if I can.
Broadly speaking there are 2 types of intervention, steroid injections and Denervation treatments.
Steroid Injections: These are simple safe and usually effective injections of corticosteroid into a part
of the body that is causing pain, either from arthritis or injury such as a slipped intervertebral disc
trapping a nerve or a worn joint. In many this can relieve pain for 3 months while the body recovers
and rehabilitates.
Denervation treatments: This refers to a treatment that aims to turn off a nerve/s that are supplying
arthritic joints, we do this a lot for spinal facet joints in the neck and low back, sacro-iliac joints at
the back of the pelvis and also the shoulder. There are other areas that can be treated as well.
Denervations can reduce pain by about 50% for 6-18 months. They are considered relatively safe and
can be repeated if required.
There are other options, and sometimes ‘Pain Management’ is helpful, this involves finding out more
about chronic pain and how to makes the adaptations to better self care.
CONTACT
PA Contact Details
Lesley Wilson
0161 495 7008
The Alexandra Hospital
Mill Lane
Cheadle
SK8 2PX