• Cláudia Gouvinhas, Dalila Veiga, Liliane Mendonça, Rute Sampaio, Luís Filipe Azevedo, and José Manuel Castro-Lopes.
• Department of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
• Pain Res Treat. 2017 Jan 1; 2017: 8402413.

BackgroundInterventional Pain Management (IPM) is performed in multidisciplinary chronic pain clinics (MCPC), including a range of invasive techniques to diagnose and treat chronic pain (CP) conditions. Current patterns of use of those techniques in MCPC have not yet been reported.ObjectiveWe aimed to describe quantitatively and qualitatively the use of IPM and other therapeutic procedures performed on-site at four Portuguese MCPC.MethodsA prospective cohort study with one-year follow-up was performed in adult patients. A structured case report form was systematically completed at baseline and six and 12 months.ResultsAmong 808 patients referred to the MCPC, 17.2% had been prescribed IPM. Patients with IPM were on average younger and had longer CP duration and lower levels of maximum pain and pain interference/disability. The three main diagnoses were low back pain (n = 28), postoperative CP, and knee pain (n = 16 each). From 195 IPM prescribed, nerve blocks (n = 108), radiofrequency (n = 31), and viscosupplementation (n = 22) were the most prevalent. Some IPM techniques were only available in few MCPC. One MCPC did not provide IPM.ConclusionsIPM are seldom prescribed in Portuguese MCPC. Further studies on IPM safety and effectiveness are necessary for clear understanding the role of these techniques in CP management.

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