Dr. Mauricio Casarsa

Training

I trained as an anesthesiologist and completed two postgraduate specializations in Pain Medicine and Percutaneous Interventional Pain Management:

• Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) — Fundación Dolor. Specialization in Pain Medicine.
• Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) — CAIDBA. Specialization in Interventional Pain Management.

For more than ten years I have been on the medical staff of Hospital Alemán de Buenos Aires, one of Argentina's leading medical institutions, where I maintain a volume of surgical cases and interventional procedures that lets me keep learning and honing my specialty every day.

How I think about pain

Chronic pain is not "a muscle knot that won't go away." It's a condition that changes the life of the person living with it — and their family's. But contrary to what many patients are told during the first years of their condition, being in pain for months or years is not something you simply have to learn to live with.

My approach combines:

• An accurate diagnosis. The first step is understanding what type of pain each patient has — nociceptive, neuropathic, mixed — and which structure it's coming from. Without a diagnosis, there is no targeted treatment.
• Image-guided procedures (ultrasound and fluoroscopy) for precision and safety. Nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, joint injections, regenerative medicine.
• A comprehensive view. Chronic pain is rarely resolved with a single treatment. It usually takes a combination of personalized medication management, targeted physical therapy, lifestyle changes and, when appropriate, percutaneous interventions.
• Clear communication. Every patient should understand what's happening, what their options are and what to expect from each treatment. Medicine is not an exact science and results are never guaranteed, but we can make informed decisions together.

Conditions I treat

The most frequent reasons for consultation in my practice are:

• Chronic low back pain (with or without pain radiating to the leg)
• Herniated disc, lumbar and cervical
• Sciatica and radiculopathies
• Facet joint syndrome, lumbar and cervical
• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Sacroiliitis
• Osteoarthritis of the knee, hip and hands
• Chronic tendinopathies (tennis elbow, patellar tendinopathy, rotator cuff)
• Chronic headaches and refractory migraine
• Trigeminal neuralgia and other neuralgias
• Neuropathic pain from various causes
• Chronic post-surgical pain
• Cancer pain
• Myofascial pain syndrome

Procedures I perform

• Ultrasound- and fluoroscopy-guided nerve blocks (facet, epidural, foraminal, sympathetic)
• Conventional and pulsed radiofrequency ablation
• Joint and soft-tissue injections
• Regenerative medicine: platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
• Head and neck blocks for chronic headaches
• Procedures for cancer pain

Where I practice

I see patients at two private offices, both by appointment:

I also offer virtual consultations for patients who live far away or need a second opinion without traveling.

Coverage

I work with Argentina's main private health plans and insurers (OSDE, Swiss Medical, Galeno, Medifé, among others), as well as self-pay patients and virtual consultations. Some procedures are not covered by every health plan; costs are discussed in advance and in writing.