Interdisciplinary pain medicine

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Acute pain

Pain medicine has several facets and is treated on an interdisciplinary and individualised basis at UKBB. The team is made up of members from paediatrics, anaesthesiology, surgery/orthopaedics, psychosomatics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and music therapy, as required.

Acute pain therapy

Usually as part of post-operative outpatient or inpatient care.

Management

Andrea Furlano
Dr Sandra Jeker

Chronic pain

Long-lasting pain also occurs in children and adolescents. This can have different triggers: An illness, an accident or even an operation. And the pain can persist even if the original trigger is perhaps no longer present.

Pain can neither be measured nor visualised in examinations. It remains invisible from the outside. And yet we all know what someone is talking about when they talk about pain.

Pain is usually described as chronic if it lasts longer than three months. Medication that is normally used for acute pain is then often less effective or not effective at all. Such pain affects the whole person - physically, emotionally and socially.

Inpatient chronic pain therapy

Chronic pain is diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team at UKBB. It carefully clarifies which physical causes are present or can be ruled out. There are not always obvious explanations for the long-lasting pain. However, the diagnosis of a chronic pain disorder can be made independently of this.

Chronic inpatient pain therapy at the UKBB can further clarify whether an inpatient stay is the appropriate treatment. This is a multimodal and interprofessional approach. This means that a closely networked team of specialists from paediatrics/rheumatology, child and adolescent psychiatry, USB pain therapy, nursing staff and various therapists put together an individual therapy programme for the patient from the various treatment approaches. Physiotherapy, occupational therapy, music therapy, psychotherapy and art therapy are just as much a part of the treatment as school, arts and crafts, sports or everyday activities such as shopping, cooking and group activities. Relatives are also involved and, whenever possible, there is a close dialogue with outpatient therapists.

During a stay of several weeks, freedom from pain is not always the primary goal. The aim is much more for those affected to be able to organise their lives actively again: Attending school, training, leisure activities, hobbies - even if the pain persists to some extent. Those affected acquire suitable strategies for this. They learn to understand connections and recognise factors that maintain their condition, and they can develop a realistic perspective for their future life.

Children and adolescents with long-term, chronic pain require inpatient pain therapy under the following circumstances:

They can no longer cope with everyday life (school, training, hobbies, social life, etc.) due to the pain.
Outpatient therapies have not been successful

At UKBB, patients are cared for and treated individually by a multidisciplinary team. The UKBB offers specialised consultation hours and therapies for children and adolescents. Our experts offer comprehensive diagnostics and therapy for a wide range of concerns. Registrations are made exclusively via medical referral.