Pooler, GA

Pain Relief for Pooler’s Working Community

Pooler sits in one of Georgia’s fastest-growing corridors, between the Port of Savannah, the Gulfstream Aerospace campus, and JCB’s North American manufacturing headquarters. That means a lot of neighbors who are on their feet all shift, lifting freight, or hunched over a workstation day after day for years at a time. It’s exactly the kind of repetitive strain that turns into chronic neck, back, and joint pain long before retirement age. Summit Spine & Joint Centers’ Pooler clinic gives Chatham, Bryan, and Effingham County residents a board-certified pain team focused on finding the source of that pain and providing relief.

Patients travel to our Canal Street office from areas such as Rincon, Richmond Hill, Bloomingdale, Pembroke, Savannah Quarters, and as far as Statesboro and Hardeeville, often after months of over-the-counter medication and physical therapy that only helped for a little while. Some are recovering from a workplace injury on the port or at the plant. Others are longtime residents of the Savannah Quarters and Godley Station communities managing arthritis or disc degeneration that’s crept up with age. Both groups get the same starting point here: a physical exam, a review of prior imaging, and a plan that favors minimally invasive, non-surgical treatment before anything else is considered.

Pooler's freight, aerospace, and manufacturing workforce puts a lot of strain on the neck, back, and joints, and our physicians see the same handful of conditions again and again.

Common Conditions

Our Pooler physicians diagnose the following problems most often, many of them tied to years of physical work or the toll of aging on the spine.

• Back Pain: the most frequent reason patients walk through our door, often tied to muscle strain, disc problems, or arthritis in the spine.
• Degenerative Disc Disease: the natural wear of the cushioning discs between vertebrae, common in a workforce that's spent years lifting or sitting.
• Herniated Discs: disc material pressing on nearby nerves, frequently from repetitive lifting or a single injury on the job.
• Facet Joint Pain: breakdown of the small joints connecting the vertebrae, causing localized pain that worsens with movement.
• Lumbar Radiculopathy (Sciatica): nerve compression in the lower back that sends pain, numbness, or weakness down the leg.
• Spinal Stenosis: narrowing of the spinal canal that puts pressure on nerves, common in a longtime workforce and retiree population alike.

Complex and Chronic Pain Conditions

Some patients arrive without a clear diagnosis. These conditions call for a personalized workup built around the whole patient, not just the symptom.

• Fibromyalgia: widespread body pain that's notoriously difficult to diagnose.
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS): ongoing pain and skin changes in a limb following an injury or nerve malfunction.
• Post-Laminectomy/Failed Back Syndrome: pain that persisted or returned after a previous back surgery.

Every condition above responds differently. Pooler's care plans start with non-surgical back pain treatment and escalate only when it's warranted.

Injections & Diagnostic Blocks

Most Pooler treatment plans start here, calming inflammation and, in some cases, confirming exactly where the pain is coming from.

• Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection: targets low back pain that radiates into the leg.
• Cervical Epidural Steroid Injection: targets neck, shoulder, or arm pain.
• Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injection: a more targeted approach for nerve root pain.
• Facet Joint Injections: for arthritis in the spine's facet joints.
• Medial Branch Block: confirms a facet joint as the pain source.
• Sacroiliac Joint Injections: for low back and buttock pain from SI joint dysfunction.

Nerve Ablation for Longer-Lasting Relief

When an injection helps but wears off too quickly, these procedures use heat to interrupt the nerve signals for relief that lasts longer.

• Lumbar Radiofrequency Neurotomy: disrupts the nerves carrying chronic lower back pain.
• Cervical Facet Radiofrequency Neurotomy: the same approach for neck pain.
• Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA): heat-based nerve treatment for facet or sacroiliac joint pain.
• Rhizotomy: disrupts nerve roots for chronic back, neck, or joint pain.
• Genicular Radiofrequency Ablation: for chronic knee pain from arthritis or injury.

Targeted Nerve Blocks for Complex Pain

For pain that starts outside the spine, whether from nerve damage, shingles, or CRPS, these blocks target the sympathetic nerves driving it.

• Celiac Plexus Block: for chronic abdominal or pelvic pain.
• Stellate Ganglion Block: for CRPS or shingles-related pain in the head, face, neck, or arm.
• Lumbar Sympathetic Block: for CRPS-related leg pain.

Advanced Options for Complex or Chronic Cases

When conservative treatment hasn't worked, or the diagnosis itself needs confirming, our Pooler providers can turn to these more involved procedures.

• Discography: a diagnostic procedure to pinpoint which disc is causing the pain.
• MILD Procedure: relieves lumbar spinal stenosis by clearing space in the spinal canal.
• Vertiflex Superion: an implant option for lumbar spinal stenosis.
• Intrathecal Pump Implant: delivers pain medication directly to the spinal fluid for severe, unresponsive pain.

Pooler patients are cared for by Dr. Shawn Banon, a board-certified pain physician who trained at Emory University and specializes in neuromodulation and vertebral augmentation, alongside family nurse practitioner Andrea Bossie and physician assistant Megan Mabe, PA-C. Between them, the team covers everything from the first diagnostic visit to ongoing pain management, and builds each plan around the patient's specific diagnosis and daily life rather than a generic protocol.

The Pooler team works to see new patients quickly, often within 24 hours. Call us or request an appointment online, and we’ll handle the rest, including insurance verification.

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