Florissant is one of the largest cities in north St. Louis County and has no interventional pain practice of its own. Patients generally travel south or west, and our two offices are among the closest options — 4477 Woodson Road in St. Louis and 12174 Natural Bridge Road in Bridgeton, each roughly eight miles from central Florissant.
From central Florissant, Lindbergh Boulevard south to I-170 is the usual approach for the Woodson Road office. For Bridgeton, Lindbergh south to Natural Bridge Road then west avoids the interstate entirely. Which office you are booked into depends on what is being done that day, and you will be told when the appointment is made.
Most patients arriving from Florissant have already had imaging and have already been told what the scan shows. A scan is a starting point, not a verdict. A large share of people with no pain at all have disc abnormalities on MRI, and plenty of people in genuine pain have unremarkable scans.
What resolves it is examination plus, where appropriate, a diagnostic block. If numbing a specific nerve reliably removes the pain, that nerve is the source and a longer-lasting treatment aimed at it is justified. If it does not, we have learned something equally useful and have not committed you to a procedure that was never going to help.
Florissant skews older than the county average, and this is the condition that most often goes unrecognized in that population.
A vertebral compression fracture is a collapse of a spinal vertebra weakened by osteoporosis. It does not require a fall. In bone that is porous enough, a cough, a sneeze, lifting a bag of groceries or simply sitting down heavily is sufficient. Because there is no dramatic injury to point to, the pain is often attributed to arthritis or a strain and left to settle.
The signs worth taking seriously are a sudden change in back pain rather than a gradual one, pain that is markedly worse on standing or walking and relieved by lying flat, a measurable loss of height, and increasing forward curvature of the upper back.
Timing is the single biggest factor in whether treatment works. Kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty stabilize the fractured vertebra with bone cement, and many patients notice meaningful improvement within a day or two. But a fracture that has already healed in a collapsed position generally does not respond, which is why an MRI is used to establish whether the fracture is still active before the procedure is recommended.
One further point, because it is regularly left unsaid: a first compression fracture substantially raises the risk of another. Cementing the broken bone does nothing to strengthen the bone around it. Evaluating and treating the underlying osteoporosis is part of the care, not an optional extra.
The second pattern we see often from Florissant is knee osteoarthritis that has reached the point of limiting walking well before a surgeon considers replacement appropriate — either because of age, cardiac risk, weight, or simply because the joint is not yet bad enough on imaging.
That gap is where a genicular nerve block is worth discussing. The genicular nerves carry pain signals from the knee joint. Blocking them is diagnostic first: if it substantially reduces your pain, genicular radiofrequency ablation can produce longer relief by interrupting those same nerves. Neither alters the arthritis, and we would not claim otherwise. What they can do is restore enough function to keep you walking while the decision about replacement is made on your timetable rather than forced by pain.
Medicare is accepted.
It may be, and it is worth imaging rather than waiting it out — particularly if the pain is much worse standing and better lying flat. Treatment works considerably better on a recent fracture than an old one.
It does not prevent or complicate later surgery. It is used when replacement is not yet appropriate or not yet wanted.
Yes. Coverage for specific procedures varies, so benefits are verified before scheduling.
For procedures involving sedation you will need a driver. You will be told in advance which appointments require one.
Call (314) 481-5000 or request a time. Office details and maps are on the locations page.
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Same-day and emergency appointments are available.