A featured speaker at the WILG convention today was Dr. Tim Tollestrup, M.D., a Las Vegas physician who specializes in peripheral nerve surgery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Tollestrup had recently operated successfully on one of my clients with a crush injury to his foot,\u00a0 so I was interested in knowing more about him and his approach to treating difficult chronic pain cases. \u00a0Dr. Tollestrup is one of only several surgeons in the country who focuses on eliminating chronic pain by applying accepted surgical techniques to peripheral nerve decompression or segmental denervation (cutting a peripheral nerve to interrupt the pain response.)<\/p>\n
Peripheral nerves are all of the nerves in the body other than the spinal cord.\u00a0\u00a0Dr. Tollestrup explained that most physicians, including orthopedic surgeons, \u00a0have very little training in the anatomy of the peripheral nerves. \u00a0 When patients have severe pain lasting longer than six months following an injury or surgery to a knee, shoulder, elbow, hand or foot, a compression, stretching, laceration, or crush-type njury to a peripheral nerve may be cause of the chronic pain. \u00a0Surgery to treat the peripheral nerve injury may successfully eliminate the pain completely.<\/p>\n
Dr. Tollestrup stated\u00a0that it was very satisfying to be able to \u00a0provide\u00a0 relief\u00a0 to a patient who may have had to take\u00a0\u00a0narcotic pain killers for months or even years.\u00a0 He\u00a0also confirmed that it was very\u00a0 frustrating to chronic pain patients to be passed from\u00a0one doctor to another after unsuccessful pain management.<\/p>\n
X-rays, MRI’s, EMG and nerve conduction studies, are not very helpful in diagnosing \u00a0a peripheral nerve injury according to Dr. Tollestrup, \u00a0Instead, he depends on taking a careful history of the problem from the patient and on a hands-on clinical examination.\u00a0\u00a0Peripheral nerve surgery is a relatively new field, and additional research must be done before it can be applied to treat spine pain.\u00a0tt was particularly exciting to learn about\u00a0its\u00a0success in treating \u00a0complex regional pain syndrome and other types of chronic pain that have been baffling to physicians treating injured employees.\u00a0 Dr. Tollestrup’s website is NevadaNerveSurgery.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A featured speaker at the WILG convention today was Dr. Tim Tollestrup, M.D., a Las Vegas physician who specializes in peripheral nerve surgery.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Tollestrup had recently operated successfully on one of my clients with a crush injury to his foot,\u00a0 so I was interested in knowing more about him and his approach to treating … Continue reading Chronic Pain: New Help with Peripheral Nerve Surgery<\/span>