Pain Management in East Cobb, GA

Summit Spine & Joint Centers’ East Cobb office, on Olde Towne Parkway in Marietta, serves patients across East Cobb and the surrounding area, including Roswell, Sandy Springs, Kennesaw and Smyrna. Most patients here are 40 and older, dealing with back, neck or joint pain that has built up gradually rather than from a single injury.

The office is staffed by two Emory-trained physiatrists, Dr. Tania Barroso and Dr. Gabriel Marrero, alongside nurse practitioner Michele Chen. Dr. Barroso spent 14 years managing pain for veterans with trigger point, prolotherapy and ultrasound-guided injections before joining Summit Spine, while Dr. Marrero trained across three programs: internal medicine at Mount Sinai, physical medicine and rehabilitation as chief resident at the University of Miami, and an interventional pain fellowship at Emory.

Michele Chen brings more than a decade of pain management experience in North Fulton, along with a background in rheumatology and nephrology that helps when a patient’s pain overlaps with another chronic condition.

A first visit at this office usually starts with a review of prior treatment and imaging, then a plan matched to the diagnosis, whether that’s a steroid injection, a radiofrequency procedure, or a longer course of care.

Conditions

Patients at the East Cobb office come in with a variety of neck, back and joint pain, including:

• Back Pain: pain that hasn’t improved with rest, medication or physical therapy.
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS): nerve pain that lingers well past the injury that started it.
• Degenerative Disc Disease: the natural thinning of spinal discs that builds up with age.
• Facet Joint Pain: irritation in the small joints that let the spine bend and twist.
• Fibromyalgia: widespread, hard to pin down pain paired with heightened sensitivity.
• Herniated Disc: disc material pressing on a nearby spinal nerve, often confirmed by MRI.
• Lumbar Radiculopathy (Sciatica): pinched-nerve pain that travels from the lower back down one leg.
• Post-Laminectomy Syndrome (Failed Back Syndrome): pain that continues after an earlier spine surgery.
• Spinal Stenosis: narrowing of the spinal canal that puts pressure on the nerves inside it.

Treatments

Every non-surgical treatment offered at East Cobb is chosen to match the individual diagnosis, starting with the 19 shared across Summit Spine’s locations:

• Back Pain Treatment: a plan built from the options below, matched to the diagnosis.
• Celiac Plexus Block: a nerve block for chronic pain in the stomach, pancreas or other abdominal organs.
• Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection: the same steroid approach used for neck and arm pain.
• Cervical Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy: the same heat-based technique applied to neck joints.
• Discography: an imaging test that pinpoints which disc is causing the pain.
• Facet Joint Injections: reduce swelling in the spine’s small connecting joints.
• Genicular Radiofrequency Ablation: targets the nerves behind chronic knee pain.
• Intrathecal Pump Implant: delivers low-dose pain medication directly to the spine.
• Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection: a steroid injection that calms an inflamed lower-back nerve.
• Lumbar Radiofrequency Neurotomy: an RFA variation for the lower back, built to last months longer than a standard injection.
• Lumbar Sympathetic Block: an injection series that eases CRPS-related leg pain.
• Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection: steroid guided precisely to one affected nerve root.
• Medial Branch Block: pinpoints which facet joint is behind the pain before treating it.
• MILD: a minimally invasive outpatient option for spinal stenosis that doesn’t require an implant.
• Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA): uses heat to interrupt a nerve’s pain signal.
• Rhizotomy: uses controlled heat to quiet a painful joint’s nerve supply.
• Sacroiliac Joint Steroid Injection: treats pain at the joint connecting the spine and pelvis.
• Stellate Ganglion Block: treats nerve pain in the head, neck or arms.
• Vertiflex Superion: a small implant that holds a narrowed spinal canal open.

Providers

Three providers see patients at the East Cobb office:

• Dr. Tania Barroso: trained in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Emory, with 14 years managing veterans’ pain through trigger point, prolotherapy and ultrasound-guided injections.
• Dr. Gabriel Marrero: trained across three programs: internal medicine at Mount Sinai, physical medicine and rehabilitation as chief resident at the University of Miami, and an interventional pain fellowship at Emory, where he later taught as an associate professor.
• Michele Chen, NP: a board certified nurse practitioner with more than a decade treating pain patients in North Fulton, with prior experience in rheumatology and nephrology.

Full bios are linked above.