Dr Simon Cohen is a staff specialist in pain medicine at Monash House and Monash Children’s Hospital in Clayton, Melbourne. He is dually qualified in pain as a Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine and in paediatrics as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He is an honorary lecturer at Monash University and past chair of the paediatric special interest group of the Australian Pain Society.

As a pain specialist, he treats adult and paediatric patients and can manage chronic pain secondary to injuries or medical conditions. There is also the challenging issue of the diagnosis of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (previously known as causalgia or reflex sympathetic dystrophy). This persistent pain condition usually arises out of an initial injury to a limb but becomes the major source of pain, suffering and loss of function despite the expected healing of the original injury.

Specialist pain advice is of diagnostic value and provides expert treatment recommendations. Pain management is holistic in nature and involves appropriate medications, and allied health management in the form of physiotherapists and psychologists. It may also involve interventions such as nerve blocks or technologically advanced, treatments of peripheral or spinal cord stimulators.

One other area of expertise is the use of opioids for the management of chronic pain. The issue of long-term opioids is topical and very much in the media currently regarding concerns of long-term harm. Medical opinion is complex and requires knowledge of the evolving literature.

Contact
E: admin@backneckandjoint.com.au