Center of Pain and Palliative Care
The Center of Pain and Palliative Care follows modern international standards, which give priority to ensuring the quality of life of both patients which acute or chronic pain and those who care for them. Palliative Care offers a comprehensive approach for the effective relief from pain and other concomitant symptoms, regardless of whether these are due to the disease or the therapy applied for their treatment, as well as relief from the stress caused by a chronic or life-threatening disease.
Depending on the needs of each patient, another expert’s advice may be sought for the most appropriate, comprehensive and effective treatment. To that end, the Center collaborates with neurologists, neurosurgeons, physiatrists, orthopedics, oncologists, rheumatologists, physiotherapists and psychologists.
Telephone: (+30)210-6972272
Call Center: (+30)210-6972000
Email: paincenter@dunant.gr
Director: Danou Fotini
Activities
The Center of Pain and Palliative Care serves patients who experience any type of pain, such as:
- Neuropathic pain, i.e., pain from nerve dysfunction or damage, such as postherpetic neuralgia, trigeminal neuralgia, phantom limb pain, posttraumatic or postoperative neuropathy, painful diabetic neuropathy, painful angiopathy
- Pelvic pain, i.e., pain in the internal and external genital organs, urinary bladder pain, perineal pain
Painful syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, knee, hip, shoulder and small joint arthralgia, plantar fasciitis / heel spurs, sickle cell anemia crisis
- Spine conditions with or without surgery indication or pain that persists after an intervention, such as degenerative spine condition pain, back pain / neck pain, vertebral fracture (osteoporotic, of metastatic etiology)
- Cancer pain and treatment side effects and/or concomitant conditions, such as nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhea / constipation, dry mouth / salivation, lymphedema, anorexia / cachexia, dyspnea, persistent cough, pruritus, post-radiation skin and mucosa lesions, sleep disorders, anxiety disorder, delirium / psychoorganic syndrome, etc.
The invasive procedures that are applied at the Center for all the above cases, where appropriate, include:
- Targeted drug infusions, application of radiofrequencies and pulsed radiofrequencies to the spine, to peripheral nerves, sympathetic ganglia, joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles and elsewhere.
- Implantation of a catheter into the epidural or subarachnoid space for continuous or on demand drug infusion.
- Implantation of electrodes in the epidural space or peripherally to the nerve presenting with neurostimulation of the structures related to the transmission of pain.
All interventions are performed under local anesthesia or sedation and under fluoroscopy or ultrasound guidance.