Globally, musculoskeletal pain is a common reason of disability and seeking medical advice. It may be localised to one area or present as a widespread/ multisite pain. Musculoskeletal symptoms may be a consequence of orthopaedic, neurologic or rheumatologic processes and hence a comprehensive history and examination is required. Based on the findings further tests and imaging are requested to confirm the diagnosis or rule out other serious conditions.

This section focuses on minimally invasive non surgical interventions available via pain clinic for joint pain and some other common musculoskeletal conditions. The interventions listed below are most often used as a part of multi-disciplinary management in combination with medications, physiotherapy, complementary therapy and psychology input  as required.

Shoulder pain may be an isolated problem localised to the shoulder or be a part of widespread pain as in rheumatoid arthritis. A combination of history, examination and diagnostic investigations is utilised to identify the pathology and guide further management. Diagnostic ultrasound scan is an effective bedside tool as it can reliably identify common shoulder pathologies and reduce the requirement of additional investigations. I routinely perform ultrasound scans at the time of initial assessment. Read More »

Hip pain is a common condition and can be quite disabling because of the impact on walking. Pain may be localised to the front, side or back of the hip joint. Common cause for anterior hip pain is joint problems such as arthritis, that on the outer side of hip is greater trochanteric pain syndrome whereas posterior hip pain may arise from multiple sources such as sacroiliac joint, lumbar spine, piriformis muscle etc. It is important to evaluate lumbar spine as spine pathology commonly coexists and can be responsible for producing/ exacerbating hip pain. Read More »

Knee pain can be a source of significant disability in all age groups as it limits mobility. It can be classified into traumatic or non traumatic and based on the site of pain into anterior, medial, lateral and posterior. The common reasons for knee pain vary with age group and pain site .Pain from other sites such as hip and lumbar spine can also present knee pain. Read More »

These are common problems involving staining/overuse of forearm tendons which attach to the bony prominences on the upper arm bone close to the elbow joint. Tennis elbow involves the tendons attaching to the outer side of elbow and repetitive activities involving gripping or twisting of forearm makes this pain worse. It may affect one or more tendons and it’s not uncommon for the pain to radiate down further into the forearm. Read More »