Pain management for Edwardsville patients comes with a hospital tie close to home. Edwardsville sits a few minutes from Anderson Hospital in Maryville, where Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP is on staff with full privileges. We are licensed in Illinois.
Edwardsville is younger than most towns around it, and its pain follows that age. We see more sports and overuse injuries here — tendons that never healed, sore joints in people far too young for a new one, and trapped nerves that were treated as muscle strain for months.
These need different care than a worn-out spine does. The difference matters, because the wrong kind of treatment lets you down every time.
Long-term tendon problems — the Achilles, the kneecap tendon, tennis and golfer’s elbow, the buttock tendons at the hip — often get called inflammation and treated that way. In the chronic stage, that is usually not what is going on. The tissue is stuck in a failed repair. Its collagen is a tangle and its blood supply is poor, so anti-inflammatory pills have little to work on.
Shockwave therapy goes after that exact problem. Focused sound pressure waves sent into the tissue kick-start repair in a tendon that has stalled. There is no numbing shot, no cut and no recovery time — you walk out and get on with your day.
Photobiomodulation (light therapy) is often added when poor blood flow and inflammation hold back healing.
The other pattern we see in younger, active people is a trapped nerve. A nerve should glide through the tissue around it. After an injury, surgery or the same motion over and over, it can get stuck in scar or thickened fascia (the tough wrap around muscles). Then it gets tugged instead of sliding. That makes burning, tingling or electric pain that runs along the nerve. It is often mistaken for a muscle problem or for pain coming from the spine.
Hydrodissection treats this head-on. Using ultrasound, we inject fluid right into the gap between the nerve and the tissue gripping it. That pries the two apart, and the nerve can move again. Ultrasound is the key. It shows the nerve live, so we watch the release as it happens. A still image cannot do that.
When the trapped nerves are the cluneal nerves over the back of the pelvis, the problem is often misread as a sacroiliac joint problem or sciatica — see cluneal neuropathy and piriformis syndrome.
Our offices are in Missouri — 4477 Woodson Rd, St. Louis and 12174 Natural Bridge Rd, St. Louis. From Edwardsville, take I-55/70 west to I-270 west, then head south toward the airport. Allow about thirty-five minutes outside rush hour.
Most people show up with an MRI already done and already explained to them. A scan is a starting point, not a verdict — lots of people with no pain at all have disc changes on MRI. What settles it is an exam. When it fits, we add a diagnostic block (a test numbing shot) to confirm the source before we commit to anything longer-lasting.
The other gap we see in younger, active people is a knee, hip or shoulder that hurts too much to run or lift. Yet it is nowhere near bad enough for a surgeon to replace it. Being told to come back in fifteen years is true and totally useless.
Viscosupplementation (gel shots for the knee) and genicular nerve blocks both fill that middle ground for the knee. We are straight with you about the proof for each, and we do not pretend they are the same. Neither one reverses arthritis. What they can do is give back enough function to keep training. The surgery choice stays yours, and it stays years away.
A failed tendon, a trapped nerve, a loose joint, or pain sent from a nearby spot can all hurt young, active people with normal scans. Each one has a different treatment.
It is uncomfortable while it runs and settles fast after. No numbing is used and there is no downtime.
It depends on the tissue and how long the problem has been there. You usually see a change within a few sessions. If it is not helping, we say so and change course. We do not keep going forever.
We take most major plans and Medicare. Illinois network plans vary. We check your benefits before you book.
Hydrodissection frees a nerve stuck in scar or thickened fascia after an injury, surgery or the same motion over and over. Using ultrasound, we inject fluid into the gap between the nerve and the tissue gripping it. That pulls the two apart so the nerve can glide again. It suits burning, tingling or electric pain that runs along a nerve. That pain has often been mistaken for a muscle problem.
A scan is a starting point, not a verdict. Lots of people with no pain at all have disc changes on MRI. An exam, plus a diagnostic block when it fits, confirms which part is really making the pain. We do that before we commit to anything longer-lasting. That way the longer-lasting treatment hits a proven source, not a guess.
Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP is on staff with full privileges at Anderson Hospital in Maryville, a few minutes from Edwardsville. The practice is licensed in Illinois. Office visits happen at our two Missouri offices in St. Louis. They are about thirty-five minutes from Edwardsville outside rush hour, by I-55/70 west to I-270 west.
Call us or request an appointment. See also our Illinois pain management page.
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Same-day and emergency appointments are available.