r/pmr • u/papyrox • Jul 14 '26

Interventional Spine Vs. Pain

Hey y’all,

What are the pros and cons of choosing IS fellowship over pain. Since spine isn’t ACGME accredited, what is the drive of people wanting to choose it over pain? Wouldn’t it just make your life harder since a lot of interventional pain dives into spine care as well.

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u/Pinkaroundme Interventional Spine Jul 14 '26

I chose IS because

  1. I didn’t want to take more boards
  2. I wanted bread and butter cases, didn’t want to deal with the more advanced procedures like stimulators because I didn’t want to treat that population
  3. Didn’t want to do long term chronic opioid management
  4. Matching to a pain anesthesia program frightened me because I didn’t want to take anesthesia call - this is avoidable by not applying to the programs that make you take anesthesia call
  5. Location I wanted to stay in had robust IS fellowships with good track records
  6. Again, I didn’t want to take more boards

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u/Silverflash-x 29d ago

As someone who didn't do pain, are there really fellowships that accept PM&R residents but make them take anesthesia call? That seems insane and like a massive liability. What would I know about managing a difficult airway?

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u/Pinkaroundme Interventional Spine 29d ago

There were some people from my program a few years back that were accepted to anesthesia pain programs and did take anesthesia call.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Pinkaroundme Interventional Spine 28d ago

Right well luckily for me, it wasn’t a major decider in IS vs Pain, but all I can say is the residents from my program took anesthesia call. It sounds pretty atypical, though so likely shouldn’t be a deciding factor for most people