Armin V. Oskouei, M.D., F.A.C.A., F.A.C.P.M.
Director of Interventional Spine at SpineCenterAtlanta
Dr. Armin Oskouei is a Double Board Certified physician with specialty training in Anesthesiology and Interventional Spine-PM&R (Physiatry) and Pain. He has been a pioneer in the advancement of interventional techniques for pain control. He has led research teams in both basic science research and clinical research. He has presented these works at multiple national meetings around the United States and abroad, including at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ annual conference and at the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine conferences. Dr. Oskouei specializes in cutting edge treatment of pain utilizing advanced techniques and imaging modalities. For many years, Dr. Oskouei has given lectures and given hands-on seminars to Atlanta pain physicians and anesthesiologists as well as around the country in the art of using ultrasound for injections and diagnosis. He is able to perform techniques unavailable to many providers and can stop pain by targeting nerves by direct visualization. Most pain practitioners continue to rely on fluoroscopy as their only means of visualizing human anatomy. At Spine Center Atlanta, under the direction of Dr. Oskouei, patients can find relief with the latest techniques using not only the most advanced fluoroscopy imaging machines, but also with the top ultrasound machines available at this time.
Dr. Oskouei is an Atlanta native and graduated from North Springs High School in Sandy Springs. He began to sharpen his research skills even then at the Governor’s Honors Program in the field Science, where he looked at whether antioxidants prolong cell life. He also was one of only a few students in the state to actually spend part of his high school career at both Fernbank Science Center and Fernbank Museum learning cutting edge scientific techniques. He continued on to earn two Bachelor of Science degrees at Emory University as a double major in Biology and Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology, while he minored in Philosophy. Dr. Oskouei continued to do research in the neuroscience lab on the reward versus punishment pathways of rodents and the pharmacology that could manipulate these pathways in the limbic system. Dr. Oskouei continued on to medical school at the Medical College of Georgia where he continued his research endeavors including working on unique injection techniques to treat migraines and orofacial pain. This work was presented at the American Academy of Neurology national meeting and also at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine national meeting. Dr. Oskouei also found time in medical school to work as a guest researcher for the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC in Atlanta. In his final years of medical school he worked with Dr. Marie Csete at Emory University, a world renowned scientist and Anesthesiologist, on cutting edge research in the realm of liver transplantation working to prevent hepatorenal syndrome with the use of vasopressin. Dr. Oskouei found anesthesia intriguing and thus pursued a residency at Emory University in the specialty of anesthesiology. Dr. Oskouei did breakthrough research on the use of ultrasound for performing nerve blocks and for inserting special catheters around nerves to help prevent pain for patients having surgery. After finishing his residency he stayed on staff at Emory as a professor of Anesthesiology where he performed anesthesia and worked regularly on the Acute Pain Service. Here he provided specialized nerve blocks and catheters for patients undergoing various surgeries to prevent pain intra-operatively and post-operatively. He continued his research on ultrasound techniques and developed a grading system for predicting nerve block efficacy and local anesthetic volume requirement. Dr. Oskouei returned to fellowship in the speciality of Interventional Pain at Emory University School of Medicine. During this training he also became adept in the field of interventional physiatry under the guidance of the physiatry physicians at Emory Orthopedics & Spine Center: http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/spine/physicians/nonsurgical-specialists/index.html
Dr. Oskouei is currently the Director of Interventional Spine at SpineCenterAtlanta, where he continues to do cutting edge research and provides his patients with the most advanced treatments and techniques available in the field of Interventional Spine. When he is not working on helping his patients or advancing the field of Interventional Spine, Dr. Oskouei has a passion for life and enjoys spending time with his wife, Miranda, and young son, Rocco. He also enjoys snowboarding, guitar playing, auto racing, wake boarding, and pretty much anything exciting!
Interventional Spine
Finding relief from pain is a struggle millions of Americans fight every day. As a part of SpineCenterAtlanta’s commitment to healing patients and helping them to reach their maximum levels of wellness and comfort, our doctors and clinicians are devoted to being in the front of the line with research, technology and integrative medicine in the care that we provide.
What is Interventional Spine Management?
The goals of interventional spine are to relieve, reduce, or manage pain and improve a patient’s overall quality of life through minimally invasive techniques specifically designed to diagnose and treat painful conditions. Interventional spine also strives to help patients return to their everyday activities quickly and without heavy dependence on medications.
Interventional spine management addresses acute and chronic pain, which is defined as pain that lasts longer than six months. Chronic pain can be mild or excruciating, episodic or continuous, merely inconvenient or totally incapacitating.
With chronic pain, signals of pain remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months, or even years. This can take both a physical and emotional toll on a person.
The most common sources of pain stem from headaches, joint pain, pain from injury, and backaches. Other kinds of chronic pain include tendinitis, sinus pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain affecting specific parts of the body, such as the shoulders, pelvis, and neck. Generalized muscle or nerve pain can also develop into a chronic condition.
Chronic pain may originate with an initial trauma/injury or infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain. However, some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage.
The emotional toll of chronic pain also can make pain worse. Anxiety, stress, depression, anger, and fatigue interact in complex ways with chronic pain and may decrease the body’s production of natural painkillers; moreover, such negative feelings may increase the level of substances that amplify sensations of pain, causing a vicious cycle of pain for the person. Even the body’s most basic defenses may be compromised: There is considerable evidence that unrelenting pain can suppress the immune system.
Back Pain and Interventional Spine Management Treatments
For back pain sufferers, interventional spine techniques can be particularly useful. In addition to a thorough medical history and physical examination, interventional spine physicians have a wide array of treatments that can be used.
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