You will be taken to the recovery room and monitored for a period before being discharged, and this is typically 20-30 minutes. You will be offered something to eat and drink prior to your discharge and receive post-procedure instructions and when to follow-up.

If your procedure was performed in a surgery center, a nurse will review post-procedure instructions with you, as well as explain any special instructions provided by Dr. Brown regarding diet, rest, medications, when to follow up with Dr. Brown or his P.A., and how to use any durable medical equipment such as a neck or back brace, or sling immobilization which may have been ordered.

Please stop taking all prescribed blood thinning medications as directed by the physician who prescribed your blood thinning medications. We will notify them of your scheduled procedure and ask that they give you directions on when to stop taking your blood thinning medication, and when to resume the blood thinner after the procedure performed.

Please take all regularly prescribed medications you take daily as you normally do except for prescribed blood thinners. Aspirin, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs will be stopped depending on the procedure performed. The scheduling staff will discuss instructions with you at the time of scheduling your appointments regarding aspirin, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs.

Most patients will not encounter problems after interventional pain procedures. It’s not uncommon to experience some pain for the first 24-48 hours after the local anesthetic has worn off. Some patients may experience steroid “Flush”. This is associated with redness of the face, swelling, agitation and ability to sleep. This is almost always self limited within 2-3 days. As with any procedure, however, there are potential risks, including, but not limited to: reaction to anesthesia, infection, swelling, nerve damage, paralysis, headache, temporary nerve irritation, bleeding, epidural hematoma, epidural abscess, and procedure failure.

The length of interventional pain procedures vary. A procedure can take as little as 15-20 minutes, to as long as 1-2 hours for the more complex and complicated procedures we perform. The surgery centers want you to check in one hour prior to your scheduled procedure time and you should be prepared to spend approximately 90-120 minutes at the surgery center.