The Chronic Pain Service

Stanford has a fairly unique inpatient pain management program for patients with severe, debilitating diseases who are admitted directly to the pain service for very specialized protocols. For example, we start ziconotide, a unique analgesic derived from the toxin of a snail, delivering it into the spinal space for some chronic nerve pain syndromes. We have a special dihydroergotamine protocol for patients with refractory migraines. We also detox patients who have addiction issues. It's interesting to see these specific therapies for a very small population of patients. Although the pain management fellow is mostly in charge of this service, hearing about it and learning about these new cutting edge interventions is educational and interesting.