Successful first year for special pain medicine at the sports clinic
Dr. Wolfang Welke can still remember the fight to keep the Marienhospital in Letmathe. And also of the call from Sports Clinic Board Member Dirk Burghaus, who offered to take over the entire pain clinic team from Letmathe in order to ensure the care of pain patients in the Märkischer Kreis - even beyond the short-term closure of the Marienhospital. It was quickly agreed that this could be a successful collaboration for both sides. Dr. Welke and his team moved almost unanimously to the sports clinic in the generously designed new premises. In the meantime, the head physician for special pain medicine can look back on a successful first year in Lüdenscheid. A year in which he and his team have settled in well and are continuing their work in the pain outpatient clinic, pain ward and surgery operations in the proven tradition with full success.
Due to the closure of the Marienhospital, everything had to happen quickly at that time. The pain patients had to be treated urgently. So it was fortunate for everyone involved that the move went smoothly on November 1, 2019. The chief physician is particularly pleased: "Almost all of the staff at my previous clinic - both from the nursing department and the physicians - have followed me to the sports clinic." So have the majority of his previous patients. Based on the many years of experience in Letmathe, a care center for pain medicine has been established in Lüdenscheid for the entire Märkischer Kreis region and beyond. Patients come from all over Germany - and athletes also benefit from the expanded range of services offered by the sports clinic. His first patient at the sports clinic was a disabled athlete from the Olympic squad with chronic pain who received a pain pump. This involves implanting a pump that delivers the painkiller directly to the appropriate site.
Dr. Welke uses an older model and a new model to show how the size of neurostimulation generators has decreased. Other instruments on display: an old pain pump (round with a white rim) and a multifunction electrode.
"One can draw a small conclusion after our first year and say: a change often offers unexpected positive perspectives," says Dr. Wolfgang Welke. With the takeover of the Letmathe pain clinic, the sports clinic not only has a KV outpatient pain clinic, but has also been able to expand its previous spectrum of pain therapy. This includes, among other things, therapy with implantable drug pumps, neurostimulation for nerve pain (an electrode in the spinal canal provides pain relief through stimulation), treatments for scarring in the spinal canal using epiuroscopy, and therapies with cannabinoids and other modern painkillers. The "high-frequency stimulation" treatment method, which was introduced at the Letmathe pain clinic only about two years ago, has been intensified in Hellersen. It is used, for example, to relieve chronic back pain.
In addition, Dr. Welke has taken over Multimodal Pain Therapy from Dr. Ralf Spintge, who retired in April 2020, and is pleased that this form of therapy can be practiced even more extensively in the sports clinic through physiotherapy and sports medicine than was possible in Letmathe.
An important part of Dr. Welke's spectrum continues to be tumor pain therapy and the treatment of therapy-resistant pain. For this purpose, the chief physician has been working for a long time with the painkiller ziconotide - the venom of the cone snail. This is delivered via an implanted pump and is about 1000 times stronger than morphine.
Even if Dr. Welke sometimes looks back on his time in Letmath with some melancholy, he feels that his department has found a very good new home in the sports clinic. Board member Dirk Burghaus is also pleased about this. "We were convinced by the concept of the pain clinic and Dr. Welke, and sometimes in life you just have to take advantage of a good opportunity. The pain clinic has integrated excellently into the sports clinic. The good attendance speaks for itself and the results are very pleasing. With Dr. Welke and his team, we were able to gain an experienced pain physician with almost all of the tried and tested staff. This puts the sports clinic in an even better position for the future," he explains. Pain medicine is also a useful addition for orthopedists, spine surgeons, traumatologists, conservative orthopedists and neurosurgeons.
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