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Surgeon, specialist in Orthopedics and Traumatology, Anesthesia, Resuscitation and Analgesic Therapy
Every person has the right to enjoy life without unnecessary suffering.
Dr. Maurizio Barca Pain Medicine Doctor Professionally recognized among Pain Specialists, Dr. Maurizio Barca is an Algologist specialized in the treatment of neck and back pain… and much more. In his facility he evaluates and treats pain at its onset utilizing multidisciplinary minimally invasive surgical procedures to prevent acute painful conditions from progressing to debilitating chronic pain syndromes. Dr. Maurizio Barca in addition to being a Pain Medicine Doctor is an Anesthesiologist with the residency attended at the University of Texas Medical Branch and Italy. He is member of Pain Medicine Associations in Italy. Over the years, Dr. Barca has created not only the facility of choice for spine and joint care in Italy, but also the facility of first choice for those with acute pain ranging from neck pain, back pain, headaches, sciatica, fibromyalgia, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, shingles pain, joint pain, and osteoarthritis and trauma injuries. Dr. Maurizio Barca coordinates treatments and service record making the waiting list short. Dr. Maurizio Barca is consultant in several Pain Clinics in Italy and works closely with many of the primary care physicians, medical specialists and surgeons in the area; he is not committed to any hospital, surgeon, pharmacy, drug company, consulting firm or medical products company. He serves his patients’ interests only and is not encumbered by any outside third party relationship.
Universiù:University of Ferrara
Email:mauriziobarca@yahoo.com
Phone:+39 329 1104897
Specializations:
Orthopaedic
Medical Doctor Specialist in Anaesthesia and Resuscitation
Dentist
Curriculum
Dr. Maurizio Barca is a qualified expert in knee, hip and shoulder prosthetic surgery, foot surgery and spinal surgery.
Today, prosthetic surgery has become an indispensable tool for the treatment of hip, knee and shoulder pathologies.
In the presence of arthritis of the major joints, the implantation of prosthetic allows the treatment of degenerative joint diseases, with excellent results.
Thanks to the evolution of techniques and advanced materials, the implantation of prosthetic allows to obtain a lasting result by removing pain and restoring normal mobility and functionality to the joint and, in an active and young person, provides the possibility to practice some sports activities.
The main causes of a shoulder prosthetic operation are various, the most frequent being arthritis and degenerative arthropathies that involve, compared to the normal shoulder, the loss of the covering cartilages and tendons with the consequent disappearance of the joint space between the humerus and the scapula, the deformation of the articular surfaces and the formation of bony outgrowths called osteophytes.
This can occur spontaneously with aging or be favored and/or conditioned by previous damage to the joint, for example severe trauma or repeated dislocations of the shoulder.
There is the right indication for the choice of prosthetic surgery when one of the diseases listed leads to intense, poorly controllable pain and a major loss of shoulder motion, so that the patient is no longer able to use the ipsilateral arm and hand resulting in severe disability.
The surgical intervention of hip prosthetic implant is practiced on the patient to reduce the pain symptomatology, to recover the mobility and the functionality of the lower limbs and, in case of young patients, to restore the possibility to perform again sport activities.
The main causes are degenerative diseases, fractures or congenital dysplasia.
The prosthetic surgery is performed by an orthopedic surgeon specialized in the field, in collaboration with a team of specialized and competent personnel.
In particular, the hip needs an artificial implant whose surface, in order to allow easy sliding, is coated with metal, ceramic or polyethylene, the latter in allergic patients.
After finding that the pharmacological therapy has not achieved any kind of result, the orthopedic surgeon makes an accurate diagnosis through a thorough assessment by MRI or CT scan.
At surgery the patient will be made an incision of a few centimeters, then performing an access route that can be traditional or minimally invasive, then dividing the muscles and proceeding to the grafting of the implant, which will replace the head or neck of the femur or the cotyloid part of the hip.
After the operation and a hospital stay of about a week, rehabilitation therapy is then carried out in a specialized facility for another 2/3 weeks.
Over the years, a particular clinical and scientific commitment has been devoted to the treatment of spondylolisthesis (isthmic, dysplastic, traumatic) in both youth and adulthood. The professionals belonging to the Spinal Surgery Area have always been committed both from a scientific and clinical point of view in the treatment of this pathology.
The surgical treatments provided are determined by evaluating each patient's age, symptoms, radiological picture, type and evolution of spondylolisthesis and range from special techniques such as isthmic reconstruction, suitable for young patients, to more elaborate and complex techniques that use traditional approaches: posterior, anterior, combined and, where indicated, minimally invasive approaches.
Degenerative pathology is also a wide field of interest. The main pathologies treated in this field are vertebral stenosis, herniated discs, relapses of herniated discs, degenerative spondylolisthesis, myelopathy, segmental instability. Treatments can be conservative (use of dedicated braces, physiotherapy, pain therapy) in moderately symptomatic patients.
In highly symptomatic patients, the treatment is surgical, using modern instrumentation able to guarantee arthrodesis (vertebral fusion) where necessary, but also techniques aimed at preserving residual mobility of the spine. Herniated cervical and lumbar discs are treated with a micro-assisted technique that can ensure a quick functional recovery.
The area of Spinal Surgery also provides the possibility of treatment for vertebral fractures of various etiologies (osteoporotic, traumatic) and vertebral infections. In this area, diagnostic procedures are performed, with the collaboration of the Division of Interventional Radiology, conservative and surgical treatments among the most advanced in the field.
Dr. Maurizio Barca also specializes in surgery for hallux valgus correction, carpal tunnel syndrome surgery, and trigger finger syndrome correction.
In our country, too, there is more and more talk of Pain Therapy Centers. The interest and expectations among patients are great, because the problem of uncontrolled pain, regardless of possible causes, is very frequent. However, despite the remarkable progress in medicine, pain treatment is still a difficult and sometimes frustrating field; therefore, it is important to understand what treatment options are available, respectively to understand what kind of help a Pain Therapy Center can provide.
Pain is primarily a symptom of disease, which physicians of all specialties treat by treating the cause. When the cause cannot be cured, the treatment focuses on the pain symptom, trying to reduce its intensity and limit its negative effects on everyday life. First of all, oral treatment with pain-relieving drugs (simple analgesics such as Aspirin, possibly combined with powerful analgesics such as Morphine and its derivatives) are taken into consideration; to these medical treatments are added, depending on the case, the use of drugs with local action (anti-inflammatory ointments or patches), that of so-called adjuvant drugs (muscle relaxants, sedatives, etc.. ), physiotherapy, the possible use of electrical stimulators to be applied to the skin (TENS), as well as acupuncture and appropriate psychological support.
When these therapeutic choices prove to be insufficient or cause intolerable side effects, it is possible in certain cases to resort to special and less known therapies, practiced by specialized doctors.
There are many specific techniques against pain that we read about in the mass media; among these, only a few can be considered valid on the basis of the scientific studies carried out and the experiences gathered.
The targeted injection of cortisone derivatives to reduce painful inflammatory reactions at the level of large joints or of the spinal column, can be considered a rapidly effective solution, although not always of prolonged duration.
The administration of cortisone derivatives at the level of the nerve roots allows, for example, to control the pain generated by a newly appeared herniated disc, but it can also be useful in patients with leg pain due to a narrow spinal canal.
Injections are sometimes performed under radiologic control to allow more precise administration of the drug and are usually done without resorting to patient hospitalization.
The targeted administration of local anesthetics or neurolytic substances on certain structures of the neurovegetative system (for example the stellate ganglion in the neck or the para-lumbar ganglia) allows to control pain and sometimes to positively influence the course of pathologies such as algodystrophy or inoperable blood circulation disorders.
Another technique based on the exact introduction of needles in the immediate vicinity of specific nerve structures is represented by radiofrequency denervation treatments of the intervertebral joints. The latter in a significant percentage of patients are at the basis of significant lumbar or cervical pain radiating into the extremities; radiofrequency treatments have proved to be very effective in these cases and can be performed on an outpatient basis.
In patients with severe osteoporosis, another method that allows pain control, from vertebral collapses, is kyphoplasty. This minimally invasive technique, involves the injection of cement into the vertebral body allowing fracture reduction and vertebral solidification.
Kyphoplasty, combined with osteoprotective medical therapy, is the basis for the treatment of severe osteoporosis.
For herniated discs, the minimally invasive method allows aspiration of the herniation through a thin canula under x-ray guidance.
More avant-garde methods such as the implantation of electrodes or catheters inside the spinal canal (respectively for the application of electrical stimulation or for the infusion of analgesic drugs) although very challenging can be considered as a valid resource for the treatment of otherwise uncontrollable pain that appeared after back surgery, or even in certain cases of neuropathic pain in the extremities, or intractable headache or urinary and/or fecal incontinence and pelvic pain. In these cases the effectiveness of the method is tested during a trial period before proceeding with the implantation under the skin of a definitive device (battery or drug reservoir respectively).
It is well understood that the path to the identification of the optimal treatment scheme always starts from the simplest therapeutic options and follows the individual characteristics of the patient as well as the evolution of his case.
A non-invasive method such as acoustic waves is extremely effective for tendinopathies such as those that generate joint pain (e.g. shoulder, feet elbows ankles and several others).
What does a Pain Therapy Center offer?
Beyond the different technical possibilities offered by the different centers, the most important offer is the global and multidisciplinary treatment of the patient's problems. This means that the patient is not offered only an isolated service, but rather an evaluation of his entire problem from the point of view of different medical specialties.
It is important to underline the fact that in most cases a single therapeutic gesture does not allow to solve all the patient's problems; on the other hand, a wide-ranging approach with perhaps limited, but reasonable objectives, offers greater guarantees of success.
The Pain Therapy Centers are therefore primarily consultation centers for the search of the best possible therapeutic solution in collaboration with the treating physicians.
Some of the pathologies of relevance to Analgesic Therapy are:
Dr. Maurizio Barca performs the following procedures for the treatment of painful conditions:
Dr. Maurizio Barca performs, in collaboration with other professionals, the diagnostic evaluation and treatment of pelvic pain, interstitial cystitis and urinary and fecal incontinence.
Attachments:
Pelvic pain: an integrated approach to diagnosis and treatment (pdf - 314 KiB)
Chronic Pelvic Pain: An Integrated Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment (pdf - 372 KiB)
The modes of anesthesia care for the patient can be schematically divided into two main forms:
From time immemorial, the dental office has aroused distrust, anxiety or even phobia. The causes are partly contingent, linked to the interaction between patient and environment; partly they come from afar, they originate from that collective unconscious that historically stratifies in the succession of generations, subjectively manifesting itself in the most diverse, irrational and uncontrollable forms.
There are innumerable means of treating dental problems.
There are countless means that medical science and technology have devised to cope with the serious problem of discomfort of the dental patient.
This has recently given rise to a specific branch of medicine: Dental Anesthesiology. The Anesthesiology is the collaboration of an additional professional figure, the Anesthesiologist-Rianimator, who is responsible for attenuating or suppressing the countless unpleasant sensations that the dental patient may perceive during the various procedures.
Only a few years ago, the Anesthesiology became a specialty of dental medicine.
Only a few years ago, however, the specialist branch "dental anesthesiology" has developed new revolutionary means of application, such as to make it access to areas of routine applicability.
The safety of the methods, the certainty of their effectiveness, the rapidity of induction of the effects, the correlated promptness of their extinction and therefore the consequent prompt discharge of the treated patient, make this new form of professional collaboration easily achievable in all common dental contexts.
Dr. Maurizio Barca performs analgesia in labor and delivery at hospital clinics and nursing homes, in free profession.
Birth analgesia is more commonly known as painless childbirth, since, through the positioning of a small epidural catheter, it allows to make negligible the pain during labor, keeping intact the ability to push the mother. This procedure can also be applied in case of caesarean section.
Dr. Maurizio Barca also graduated in Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics at the University of Bologna.
You can find me at the following references:
Cell phone: +39 329 1104897
Email: mauriziobarca@yahoo.com