Patient-specific treatment strategies

As already mentioned at the beginning, pain is subject to very individual perception and thus to very individual coping strategies. Many patients with vascular malformations are also confronted with a prolonged course of their disease, which can objectively and understandably lead to acute pain again and again. In all diseases it is, of course, an important basic prerequisite that the patient first admits that he or she is affected.

While acute pain should usually not be a therapeutic problem in the context of an intervention or operation, the situation is different with chronic pain problems. If the pain becomes chronic, the strategies for treating pain and reducing limitations in daily living skills are manifold. A trusting doctor-patient relationship is the basis for successful management. Both sides must be open with each other, so doctor and patient are equally challenged in every single case.

Chronic pain requires highly individualized and interdisciplinary care. It is advisable to establish contact at an early stage with a facility that is experienced in pain therapy, such as a pain clinic. Contact with a patient support group can also be helpful.

The attending physician should have a network of services that he or she can offer to the individual patient. The patient, in turn, should have sufficient motivation and patience to take up these offers openly and honestly. In this situation, it is always necessary to overcome thought barriers.

Typical therapeutic obstacles and prejudices experienced in drug therapy are for example:

• “Painkillers are harmful”
• “Opiates are addictive and lead to dependence”
• “Morphine is only given to patients in the terminal stages of cancer”

Chronic pain patients, in particular, also have reservations about psychotherapeutic procedures or support methods. It is also important to involve the patient's immediate social environment, since chronic illnesses always affect the patient's family or immediate environment in everyday life.