Drug Free Pain Management Awareness Month

In honor of Drug Free Pain Management Awareness Month, Memorial’s orthopedic clinic is having patient success with the Iovera treatment.

The non-opioid pain reliever Ioavera is used to treat specific nerves so the pain relief is focused only on the part of the body that is being treated.

One injection treatment with the Iovera system can last 90 days. The injection is shot into the affected area before most common knee surgeries.

The shot uses the body’s natural response to cold to treat nerves and immediately reduce pain without the use of drugs. Dr. Dudley Burwell Jr. said, “The pain management is what we are trying to accomplish is getting patients better with surgery. In this case without getting them addicted to a pain medication after the surgery and this allows us to give them less pain medication or the patient needs less medication during their post-operative course.”

According to the CDC, about 1.6 million people in the United States suffer from opioid use disorder. Iovera is one way to avoid the prescription of pain-relieving drugs.