Pain Management Program

The Pain Management Program is part of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We provide comprehensive inpatient and outpatient evaluation and therapy for children with acute pain and chronic pain.

Acute pain management service

Inpatient consultative service

The pain management team provides acute pain management services to infants, children and adolescents after surgery or a procedure. The team also provides acute pain management services to children who have medical conditions that require specialized pain management. We work closely with the healthcare teams and the patient and family, taking the individual needs of each child into consideration.

On a daily basis, our physicians and nurse practitioners:

  • Evaluate each child who has been referred to us for consultation
  • Develop and implement a specialized pain management plan for each child
  • Monitor each child's progress

Addressing and managing our patients’ pain optimally and safely is a vital part of our patients’ overall care and recovery process.

Regional anesthesia

We have a dedicated regional anesthesia team that provides cutting-edge postoperative pain management services, including epidural catheters and continuous peripheral nerve block catheters, offering patients pain relief in the Hospital and at home.

Regional anesthesia is a local anesthetic that is placed close to a particular nerve, blocking the pain signals from the affected region of the body to the brain. When used alone or in combination with other pain modalities, regional analgesia provides excellent pain relief. 

Chronic pain management service

At times, children and adolescents may experience chronic pain that lasts longer than expected or does not improve sufficiently with routine treatments. When this is the case, you — together with your referring physician — may wish to consider a referral to our interdisciplinary chronic pain clinic.

We provide interdisciplinary evaluation and care plans for children (up to 18 years old) through the outpatient Chronic Pain Management Clinic. These may include:

  • Medication management
  • Pain-focused cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Relaxation and biofeedback training
  • Physical and/or occupational therapy
  • Complementary therapies (e.g., referrals for acupuncture, massage or yoga)

After we receive a referral and obtain medical information from your child's referring physician, we will send you a questionnaire packet to be filled out by you and your child.

Once the packet is returned to the Pain Management team, we will schedule an evaluation for your child with our team. Our evaluation will include meetings with both a physician and psychologist and allow us to create an individualized care plan to support your child's pain management needs. We will work collaboratively with your child's referring physician and primary medical team.

Collaboration with Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome Program

The Pain Management Program is separate from — but works closely with — the Center for Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome Program at CHOP.


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