My headaches were diagnosed as migraine but nothing has worked. Could it be something else?

Possibly. Occipital neuralgia and cervicogenic headache both mimic migraine and are commonly missed. An occipital nerve block is a quick way to find out, and it treats as it diagnoses.

Complex regional pain syndrome is a disproportionate pain response after an injury or operation, usually in a limb, often with color, temperature, and swelling changes and extreme sensitivity to light touch. It responds better the earlier it is treated.

Can pain after surgery become permanent?

It can persist, particularly after thoracotomy, mastectomy, and hernia repair, where a nerve was unavoidably in the field. It is also frequently treatable with targeted blocks, and we would rather assess it early than after years.

Do you treat abdominal pain?

We treat the neural component — celiac plexus, splanchnic, and other visceral targets — once the gastroenterology workup is complete. We do not replace that workup, and we will say so if it is not finished.

Pain at the tailbone, often after a fall or childbirth, typically worse with sitting. A ganglion impar block both confirms the source and often provides relief.

How do I know if a block worked?

We ask you to track your pain in the hours and days afterwards, because the pattern of relief is the diagnostic information. Short-lived relief from a diagnostic block is not a failure — it is the answer we were looking for.

What if my condition is rare?

Bring it. A large part of interventional pain medicine is applying a small number of well-understood techniques to an uncommon anatomy, and we will tell you plainly if it is outside what we can help with.

Pain Center

Other Pain Conditions

Headaches, abdominal pain, post-surgical pain, CRPS, and more.

Schedule Appointment 832.990.8600

A man in a dark patterned shirt sits indoors with his eyes squeezed shut and one hand pressed to his forehead, lit by warm side light.

Overview

Understanding other pain conditions.

Some pain problems do not fit the common categories, and they tend to be the ones that have been moved between clinicians longest. Occipital and trigeminal neuralgia, persistent pain after thoracotomy or mastectomy, complex regional pain syndrome, chronic abdominal and visceral pain, coccydynia — each has specific interventional answers that are under-recognized outside pain medicine.

The common thread is that these are nerve- or plexus-mediated and can often be confirmed with a diagnostic block. That block does two things at once: it tells us whether the pathway we suspect is genuinely the one carrying the pain, and it frequently provides the first meaningful relief in a long time. If your pain has not responded to standard treatment, that is a reason to be assessed rather than a reason to give up.

Common Symptoms

Persistent headaches with or without aura
Post-surgical pain in scar or dermatome
Burning, color, or temperature changes (CRPS)
Chronic abdominal or visceral pain

Common Causes

Occipital and trigeminal neuralgia
Post-thoracotomy or post-mastectomy pain
CRPS Type I and II
Visceral pain from abdominal pathology

Treatments at HTx Pain

How we approach other pain conditions.

Targeted Nerve Blocks

Occipital, trigeminal, intercostal, sympathetic, and visceral blocks.

Learn more

Spinal Cord Stimulation

Considered for CRPS and select refractory pain.

Learn more

Diagnosis & workup

A detailed history of onset, distribution, and character — nerve-mediated pain has a recognizable pattern.
Review of what has already been excluded, and by which specialties.
Examination mapping the affected nerve territory, including sensory change and allodynia.
Targeted imaging where a specific structural question would change the plan.
Diagnostic nerve or sympathetic block to confirm the pathway before any longer-acting treatment.

When to see a specialist

Pain in a defined nerve distribution that has not responded to first-line medication.
Persistent pain in a surgical scar or dermatome months after an operation.
Color, temperature, or swelling changes in a limb after injury or surgery — arrange assessment early.
Headache arising from the back of the skull that has been treated as migraine without success.
Chronic abdominal or visceral pain with a negative gastroenterology workup.

Recovery & outlook

What to expect over time.

Because these conditions are diverse, the timelines are too — but the sequence is consistent. A diagnostic block establishes the pathway, and its result guides everything after it. Where a block confirms the source, relief can often be extended with a therapeutic version or with radiofrequency ablation, which takes about 15 minutes and reaches full benefit at about the 6-week mark. For CRPS and other refractory cases, spinal cord stimulation is considered and trialed for 5 to 7 days, so you know whether it helps before anything is implanted. We are candid when a condition is one we manage rather than resolve.

Common Questions

Direct answers — no jargon.

If your question isn’t here, ask us at your consultation.

Possibly. Occipital neuralgia and cervicogenic headache both mimic migraine and are commonly missed. An occipital nerve block is a quick way to find out, and it treats as it diagnoses.

Why HTx Pain Institute

How we treat other pain conditions, differently.

These are the conditions where patients most often arrive having been told nothing more can be done, usually meaning nothing more of a particular kind was available. A diagnostic block is quick, specific, and answers a question that months of medication trials do not. We would rather perform one and find nothing than assume.

Other conditions we treat.

See all conditions

Reviewed by Edward Baumgartner Jr., MD · Last reviewed September 10, 2026. Information on this page is not medical advice. Always consult your physician.

Ready When You Are

Get the care you deserve. Schedule your consultation today.

Two Houston-area locations. Same-week consults available. Most insurance accepted.