When I first meet a patient, we spend an hour discussing his specific pain and the impact it has on his life, says Dr. Michael S. Gutkin of The Spine & Pain Center at N.J. Sport & Spine, located in Hackettstown.

Pain Management is not simple. Very often a persons pain can come from multiple sources with complex issues. When a first-time patient walks through my office door, he brings me all kinds of diagnostic films and images. I put them aside and just listen to the individual before making a medical assessment using the images to validate my own diagnosis of the patients pain.

The Spine & Pain Center specializes in all treatments of pain, including Physical Therapy, Epidural Injections, Radiofrequency Ablation and Spinal Cord Stimulators.

According to Dr. Gutkin, pain management covers acute painthat which can be identified with a specific event or occurrence and which can be reversedand chronic pain prolonged ongoing pain which may or may not be identified with a specific event or occurrence.

Chronic pain in particular is not always correctable. Our philosophy is make the patients life as pain-free as possible or, at minimum, help the individual better manage the pain. We accomplish this through an integrated multidisciplinary approach, using the latest diagnostic and treatment techniques and technologies, including EMG, rehabilitative therapies and anesthesia. Each individual receives an individualized treatment program specific to the source or sources of pain.

A Long Valley native, Dr. Gutkin is a graduate of New York University Medical Centers Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and is Board Certified by the American Board of Physician Medicine and Rehabilitation. His colleagues at The Spine & Pain Center include Dr. Atif B. Malik who completed an Interventional Pain Medicine Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Shariq Ali who completed a Residency at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Dr. Burak Alptekin who completed a Clinical Fellowship in Critical Care, a Clinical Fellowship in Pain Medicine and served as an attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.

For more information, please call (908) 684-5800.