Interventional pain management is a doctor-led approach that uses targeted, image-guided procedures to stop pain signals at their source. These include nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation and epidural injections. At the Padda Institute Center for Interventional Pain Management in St. Louis, we pair those procedures with root-cause metabolic medicine so relief lasts.
If you live with chronic pain, you have probably been told to manage it. More pills, another shot, and a longer wait for relief that never fully comes. At the Padda Institute Center for Interventional Pain Management in St. Louis, we start from a different idea. Pain is not your diagnosis. It is a signal that something is off balance. It may be your nervous system, your metabolism, or your body’s structure. This page explains how interventional pain management works and which procedures we use. It also explains why we pair precise procedures with root-cause metabolic medicine.
For a plain-language overview of how care works here — first visit, diagnosis, insurance and what happens next — see our guide to what pain management involves.
Interventional pain management is led by a doctor. It uses targeted, image-guided procedures to stop specific pain signals at their source. These include nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, epidural injections, and related techniques. Instead of relying only on pills that travel through your whole body, an interventional doctor finds the exact nerve or structure making your pain. Then the doctor treats it directly. Done well, this diagnoses as much as it treats. If a targeted block relieves your pain, it confirms where the signal is coming from.
Every plan is built around you, but common procedures include several options. Sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) and stellate ganglion blocks treat headache and pain driven by the stress nerves. Occipital nerve blocks treat headache that starts in the neck. Radiofrequency ablation of the facet joints treats chronic back and neck pain. Epidural steroid injections treat nerve pain that shoots down an arm or leg. Each targets a different part of the nervous system. The right choice depends on where your pain is really coming from. A careful evaluation is built to find that out.
Here is the part you rarely hear in a typical clinic. A shots-only model can quietly fail you. Say we do a nerve block but ignore high insulin, body-wide inflammation, or broken sleep. Then the block only silences the alarm for a while. We use procedures to break the cycle of acute suffering. Then we use that window of relief to work on the terrain underneath. That means your metabolic markers, your inflammation, and your lifestyle. A procedure is the start of a plan, not the destination.
Much of what gets brushed off as “just getting older” is built-up metabolic damage. Think glycation (sugar damage to proteins) and worn-out mitochondria. Think chronic inflammation and nutrient gaps that keep nerves on edge. Our series, The Hidden Drivers of Chronic Pain, walks through these one by one. It shows what may be keeping your pain switched on, and what can really be changed.
Our office is at 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63134 — minutes from St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Out-of-town patients can fly in, be evaluated, and start treatment without scattered, drawn-out care. We focus on results, not volume. We do procedures when the clinical data and your case call for them. We do not do them just because we can.
Interventional pain management treats many chronic conditions. These include cluster headaches and migraines, chronic back and neck pain, and sciatica. They also include facet joint pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and pain driven by the stress nerves. The right procedure depends on the source of your pain. A targeted diagnostic block can help confirm it. Individual results vary.
No. A nerve block can break a pain cycle and give real relief. But at the Padda Institute we treat it as a window. We use it to treat the drivers underneath: metabolic health, inflammation, and sleep. It is not a standalone cure. Lasting improvement usually depends on treating both the signal and the terrain that made it. Individual results vary.
No. We reject the shots-only model on purpose. Procedures are combined with metabolic and lifestyle medicine. That way we do not silence an alarm over and over. We ask why the nervous system is on edge in the first place.
The Padda Institute Center for Interventional Pain Management is at 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63134, minutes from Lambert International Airport. You can book an appointment at painmd.tv/appointment/ or call (314) 481-5000.
Standard pain medicine leans on pills that travel through your whole body. Interventional pain medicine finds the exact nerve or structure making your pain. Then it treats it directly with an image-guided procedure. Examples are a nerve block, radiofrequency ablation or an epidural injection. At the Padda Institute, that procedure is paired with metabolic medicine aimed at why the pain started.
The doctor aims an image-guided treatment at the nerve or joint that seems to send the pain signal. The procedure diagnoses as much as it treats. If a targeted block relieves your pain, it confirms where the signal is coming from. That relief then opens a window to work on the terrain behind the pain. That includes metabolic markers, inflammation, sleep and lifestyle.
It treats pain at its source instead of sending medicine through your whole body. A successful block pinpoints which nerve or joint is the problem. It also breaks the cycle of acute suffering long enough to treat what keeps nerves on edge. Our office is near Lambert International Airport. So out-of-town patients can start evaluation and treatment without scattered, drawn-out care.
This article is educational and is not a substitute for evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment by a physician. Individual results vary. Do not start, stop, or change any medication without consulting your physician.
They are outpatient procedures done in the office. Most use local anesthetic with you awake and no sedation, so you go home the same day, usually driving yourself, and return to normal activity, including work, within two to four hours. If an epidural leaves a leg temporarily numb or weak, someone else drives until it wears off. Kyphoplasty, vertebroplasty, discogram and the MILD procedure are the exceptions: they use mild sedation and need a driver. Learn more: what an epidural steroid injection actually does.
Padda Institute Center for Interventional Pain Management builds a customized, root-cause plan for each patient. Interventional care and metabolic medicine, under one roof in St. Louis.
Or call or text us — 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63134.
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Treatments without needles and tests done on site. We use them alongside procedures, not instead of them.
All procedures below are performed by our board-certified pain management doctors in St. Louis.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP — Board Certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Interventional Pain Management, Addiction Medicine, and Obesity Medicine. Last reviewed July 2026.
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