About Doctor

Munish Loomba, MD
Board Certified Pain Management (Anesthesiologist)

Dr. Loomba is Double Board Certified in Anesthesiology and Pain, has been practicing Pain Management for the last 18 years. He completed his residency at the Drexel University in Philadelphia and fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. He also spent time at Cleveland Clinic working with world-renowned pain physicians.

He practiced in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and has been in Riverside County for the last 5 years and San Bernardino county for 3 years. Presently Dr. Loomba is also a faculty for the University of California (Riverside), in the Department of Anesthesiology. In this department, he is also involved with intensive research and resident-teaching.

Dr. Loomba uses a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach that has been stemmed out of continued research with pain patients. He uses the safest and latest treatments made available with advanced technological developments, specifically using X-Ray guided and Ultrasound-guided procedures for both chronic and acute pain with excellent results.

He is an active member of the American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA), American Society of Regional Anesthesia (ASRA), and American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP).

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Treatments Completed by Dr. Munish Loomba

Vertebroplasty

Vertebral augmentation, which includes vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty, are similar spinal procedures in which bone cement is injected through a small hole in the skin into a fractured vertebra to try to relieve back pain caused by a vertebral compression fracture.

Therapeutic and Diagnostic Nerve blocks

Therapeutic nerve blocks are used to treat painful conditions. Such nerve

blocks contain local anesthetic that can be used to control acute pain. Diagnostic nerve blocks are used to determine sources of pain. These blocks typically contain an anesthetic with a known duration of relief.

Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Epidural steroid injections

An epidural injection delivers steroids into the epidural space around spinal nerve roots to relieve pain - back pain, leg pain, or other pain - caused by irritated spinal nerves. The steroid used in the epidural steroid injection reduces the inflammation of those nerves, which is often the source of the pain.

Lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injections

n a lumbar epidural injection, a corticosteroid (anti-inflammatory

medicine) is injected into the epidural space to reduce inflammation. A local anesthetic (numbing medicine) may also be injected.

Caudal epidural steroid injections

Caudal injections are a type of epidural injection administered to your low back. The shot contains a steroid that reduces pain and inflammation. Caudal injections are outpatient procedures, meaning you can go home the same day. Most patients have minimal downtime and experience back pain relief within a few days.

Cervical, thoracic and Lumbar radiofrequency ablation

Cervical facet radiofrequency neurotomy can be an effective treatment option for many conditions such as Cervical facet arthritis, Spondylosis, and Spinal degeneration. This can be a highly effective procedure and may be an alternative treatment to spinal fusion surgery. Your pain may return several months to more than a year after your rhizotomy procedure, as the medial branch nerves begin to regenerate. If this happens, you can have the rhizotomy procedure repeated.

Lumbar Discography

Lumbar discography is an injection technique used to evaluate patients with back pain who have not responded to extensive conservative (nonsurgical) care regimens. The most common use of discography is for surgical planning prior to a lumbar fusion.

Fluoroscopic guided Celiac plexus blocks

This can be done to provide short or long term pain relief that originates in various upper gastrointestinal structures (pancreas, liver, biliary tract, gallbladder, spleen, adrenal glands, kidneys, mesentery, stomach, and the small and large bowels proximal to the transverse colon)

Stellate Ganglion Block

A stellate ganglion block (sympathetic block) is an injection of local anesthetic into the front of the neck. A stellate ganglion block is done to: Diagnose the cause of pain in the face and head, arms and chest.

Lumbar Sympathetic Blocks

A lumbar sympathetic block is an injection of a local anesthetic that can help relieve chronic leg and foot pain caused by conditions such as complex regional pain syndrome, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, vascular insufficiency, and shingles.

Trigger Point Injections

Trigger point injection (TPI) may be an option for treating pain in some

patients. TPI is a procedure used to treat painful areas of muscle that contain trigger points, or knots of muscle that form when muscles do not relax. Many times, such knots can be felt under the skin.

Intercostal nerve blocks fluoroscopic and ultrasound-guided

The blockage of anterior branches of the intercostal nerves is a selective superficial block, with a very low incidence of complications and effective in different surgeries involving the chest wall and for rib fractures.

Ilioinguinal nerve blocks ultrasound-guided

Ilioinguinal nerve block has shown great utility as a diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic maneuver in the evaluation and treatment of groin and genital pain that is thought to be mediated via the ilioinguinal nerve. This nerve block is used most commonly to diagnose and treat the common entrapment neuropathy, ilioinguinal neuralgia

Genitofemoral nerve blocks ultrasound-guided

Genitofemoral nerve blocks are a minimally invasive, non-surgical treatment for chronic pain. These nerve blocks can help in the diagnosis of chronic groin, testicular, penile, and pelvic pain conditions.

Ganglion impar blocks

The ganglion impar is a nerve bundle that lies at the end on the front of the coccyx (tailbone). There are four small sacral ganglia connected by ganglion cords, and below the two sympathetic structures lies the ganglion impar. Blockage of the ganglion impar can treat pain originating from the rectum, anus, perineum, distal urethra, vagina, vulva, scrotum, and coccyx.

Sacrococcygeal plexus blocks

Ultrasound-guided sacral plexus block can be used to provide anaesthesia and analgesia for hip surgery. Recently, three methods of ultrasound-guided sacral plexus block have been reported: a short-axis method 1; long-axis method 2; and a suprasacral parallel shift approach to lumbosacral plexus blockade 3.

Hypogastric plexus blocks

A hypogastric plexus block is a treatment where medications are injected onto a bundle of nerves near the bottom of your spine. When these nerves, called the hypogastric plexus, are blocked, they stop carrying information about pain in your pelvic area.

Piriformis injections ultrasound-guided

iriformis injections are commonly used in the evaluation and treatment of patients presenting with buttock pain syndromes. Because of its small size, deep location, and relation to adjacent neurovascular structures, the piriformis is traditionally injected by using electromyographic, fluoroscopic, computed tomographic, or magnetic resonance imaging guidance.

Neurolytic injections

Neurolysis is an underutilized technique of providing prolonged, and at times permanent, interruption of select neural pathways involved in nociception in cases of chronic, intractable pain. While malignancy-related pain is the most notable and recognizable indication for neurolytic block, any chronic, intractable pain condition that is resistant to more conservative analgesic approaches can be considered to be an indication for neurolysis.

Insertion of peripheral nerve and spinal cord stimulators

Peripheral nerve stimulators (PNS) and spinal cord stimulators (SCS) both

make use of small devices that administer a mild electrical current. Each of these surgically implanted electrotherapy devices is connected to one or more wire leads, and these are positioned near nerve pathways that frequently carry pain signals.

Supraorbital nerve blocks

The supraorbital nerve block is a procedure performed to provide immediate localized anesthesia for a multitude of injuries such as complex lacerations to the forehead, upper eyelid laceration repair, debridement of abrasions or burns to the forehead, removal of foreign bodies from the forehead, or pain relief from acute herpes zoster.

Sphenopalatine Blocks

During a sphenopalatine ganglion block, pain-relieving medicine is injected to the region where the ganglion lies. This may reduce the release of the chemical norepinephrine activating the pain sensitive nerves and reduce the pain.

Occipital nerve Blocks

During a nerve block, pain-relieving medicine is injected to the region where the nerve crosses the skull. The patient is usually lying on his or her stomach. The needle is placed near the nerve and the anesthetic (or a combination of anesthetic and steroid) are injected. Pain relief may be immediate and usually lasts as long as the numbness, sometimes the relief may be long lasting. The Occipital Nerve block can manage shooting,stinging, zipping, and burning pain, migraine, and spondylosis.

Epidural Blood Patch

An epidural blood patch (EBP) is a procedure in which a small volume of autologous blood is injected into a patient's epidural space to stop a leak of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This leak of CSF is thought to decrease CSF pressure, particularly when the patient is upright, allowing for increased cerebral blood flow via vasodilation producing a characteristic post-dural puncture headache

Sacroiliac joint injections

The purpose of a sacroiliac joint injection is two-fold: to diagnose the source of a patient's pain, and to provide therapeutic pain relief.

Epidural Blood Patch

Bipolar Radiofrequency Neurotomy is a minimally invasive procedure that disables and prevents specific spinal nerve branches from transmitting pain signals.

Brachial plexus blocks

Blockade of the brachial plexus is an effective method for providing

anesthesia to the upper limb from the shoulder to the fingertips.

Shoulder Joint Injections

For the acromioclavicular joint, injection may be used for diagnosis and

treatment of osteoarthritis and distal clavicular osteolysis. Subacromial injections are useful for a range of conditions including adhesive capsulitis, subdeltoid bursitis, impingement syndrome, and rotator cuff tendinosis. Scapulothoracic injections are reserved for inflammation of the involved bursa.

Hip Joint Injections

Hip joint injections involve injecting medicine directly into the joint.

These injections can help diagnose the source of pain, as well as alleviate

the discomfort of diagnostic function.

Knee Joint Injections

Knee Joint Injections (i.e. corticosteroids) are directly injected into the

knee joint to help relieve knee pain and inflammation quickly.

Genicular nerve blocks and ablations

Genicular nerve block/neurotomy is a relatively new technique used to treat severe knee pain that has not responded to other treatments. There are typically 3 branches targeted with the genicular nerve block – the superior medial branch, the superior lateral branch, and the interior medial genicular nerves.