Pain Management in Athens, GA

Summit Spine & Joint Centers’ Athens office, on N Chase Street, is the Athens spine center for a wide Northeast Georgia service area covering Clarke County plus Watkinsville, Monroe, Jefferson and Commerce. Three providers see patients here, backed by an in-house Surgery Center for the cases that need more than an injection or a nerve block.

Dr. Van Malia brings a fellowship in interventional spine and sports medicine from the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Carlos Pulido a pain medicine fellowship from the University of Miami with a fellowship excellence award to show for it, and William Wikoff, FNP rounds out the team with an Emory nursing background.

Most patients here are 40 and older, dealing with pain that’s built up over time rather than a single injury: arthritis, degenerative disc changes, or nerve pain that hasn’t responded to a primary care visit. Insurance and workers’ compensation claims are verified ahead of the first visit, and most new patients are seen within 24 hours of calling.

Conditions

Patients at the Athens office come in with a range of neck, back and joint pain, including:

• Herniated Disc: disc tissue pressing outward against a spinal nerve, often with pain running down an arm or leg.
• Degenerative Disc Disease: the gradual loss of disc height and cushioning that comes with age.
• Lumbar Radiculopathy (Sciatica): nerve pain tracking from the lower back down into the leg or foot.
• Spinal Stenosis: a tightening spinal canal that crowds the nerves running through it.
• Facet Joint Pain: wear in the small joints that let the spine flex and rotate.
• Post-Laminectomy Syndrome (Failed Back Syndrome): pain that persists after a prior spine surgery.
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS): ongoing nerve pain that outlasts the injury that triggered it.
• Fibromyalgia: widespread pain and tenderness without a single clear source.
• Back Pain: pain that hasn’t let up despite rest, medication or physical therapy.

Treatments

The Athens office offers all 19 standard non-surgical treatments, plus two procedures available on-site through the Surgery Center:

• Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection: reduces swelling around an irritated nerve in the lower spine.
• Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection: an anti-inflammatory injection aimed at neck-level nerve irritation.
• Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection: steroid guided directly to one affected nerve root.
• Facet Joint Injections: calms swelling in the spine’s small connecting joints.
• Medial Branch Block: confirms which facet joint is causing the pain.
• Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection: treats pain at the joint linking the spine and pelvis.
• Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA): heat used to quiet an overactive pain nerve.
• Lumbar Radiofrequency Neurotomy: a heat-based nerve treatment for the lower back, built to outlast standard RFA.
• Cervical Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy: the same heat-based nerve treatment used on neck joints instead.
• Rhizotomy: heat applied to disable a painful joint’s nerve supply.
• Genicular Radiofrequency Ablation: for knee pain that hasn’t responded to other treatments.
• Celiac Plexus Block: for pain originating in the abdomen or digestive organs.
• Stellate Ganglion Block: an injection near the neck that treats nerve pain radiating into the face or arms.
• Lumbar Sympathetic Block: an injection series for CRPS-related leg pain.
• Discography: an imaging study that identifies which disc is the actual pain source.
• MILD: an outpatient procedure for spinal stenosis that doesn’t involve an implant.
• Vertiflex Superion: a small spacer implanted to keep the spinal canal open.
• Intrathecal Pump Implant: an implanted pump that releases pain medication in small, steady doses at the spine.
• Back Pain Treatment: a plan built from the options above, based on the diagnosis.
• Kyphoplasty (in-house Surgery Center): rebuilds a fractured vertebra’s height and stability.
• Spinal Cord Stimulation (in-house Surgery Center): an implanted device that blocks chronic pain signals before they register.

The last two are performed on-site, without a referral to an outside surgical facility. Our Surgery Center also supports additional advanced procedures, ask our team whether a specific option is right for your diagnosis.

Providers

Four providers see patients at the Athens office:

• Dr. Carlos Pulido: double board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine, with a pain medicine fellowship from the University of Miami that earned him the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Fellowship Excellence Award.
• Dr. Van Malia: fellowship-trained in interventional spine and sports medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, where he served as a team physician for the Cleveland Guardians.
• William Wikoff, FNP: trained at Emory University, with a prior ten-year career as a radiology and CT technologist before nursing.

Full bios are below.