LAURA LEWIS MANTELL MD

Pain Management

During her Surgical and Anesthesia residencies, Dr Lewis Mantell became increasingly drawn to the then fledgling field of pain management. The suffering she witnessed in post-operative patients and in patients with cancer moved her to learn how to treat pain effectively. At the time, pain management was not much of a specialty and there were few pain “experts”. For those suffering from pain, whether due to sciatica, surgery or cancer, the medical community offered little. Although a medical career devoted exclusively to treating pain was unusual in 1988, Dr. Lewis Mantell decided to focus her practice on treating that vastly overlooked and under-treated portion of the population.

New York’s first Pain Service

With encouragement from Beth Israel Hospital and Medical Center, Dr. Lewis Mantell created and became Director of the first acute pain service in New York City. Her message quickly became familiar to nurses and doctors alike: controlling pain after surgery was not only possible and desirable, but necessary for proper healing and recovery. She taught staff to carefully assess their patients’ pain and counseled patients to report pain that was inadequately treated. It was not long before surgeons routinely turned to her for their patients’ post operative pain care. Over time, Dr. Lewis Mantell expanded the pain service by adding several nurse practitioners to assist her in treating the fifty new post-operative patients she cared for weekly.

Dr. Lewis Mantell also began a private practice for the treatment of patients in chronic pain, using the techniques she learned in anesthesia residency and during her fellowship in pain management at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical center.

Recognition

Early on, Dr. Lewis Mantell gained recognition in her field; she was invited to lecture on the “how to”, as well as the importance of pain management to professional organizations, hospitals and on television. She was elected President of the Eastern Pain Association, the regional branch of the American Pain Society, and served several terms.

Dr Lewis Mantell has contributed to the literature on pain management. Because of her expertise in treating pain that accompanies orthopedic surgery, she was asked to author a chapter on pain management after total knee replacement. It was a personal honor to be asked and gratifying professionally as it validated that pain management was an important component of post-operative care after total knee replacement.

Because of her commitment to patient advocacy, Dr Lewis Mantell was asked to Chair her hospital Ethics committee. She has been repeatedly honored as a “Best Doctor” on the “Best Doctors in America” list and is a member of both the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.

Stress and Lifestyle

Pain often causes people to experience added stress. For that reason, Dr. Lewis Mantell became interested in the effects of stress and unhealthy lifestyle choices on her patients, as both can impact significantly on health to lower immunity, promote heart disease, increase anxiety, worsen depression, cause premature aging and decrease longevity.

To offer patients scientifically proven methods to limit and reverse the impact of stress, Dr. Lewis Mantell studied Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard, where extensive research on stress has been in progress for decades. (Mind-Body Medicine studies how the state of our minds can affect our bodies and how the state of our bodies can affect our minds). She then studied Complementary Medicine under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health to learn which of the many non-traditional medical treatments offered today have actually been proven effective. Additionally, to gain an in depth understanding about what happens to us as we grow older and what we can do about it, she studied the findings of the McArthur Foundations’ research on successful aging.

The result is that Dr. Lewis Mantell offers pain management approaches that are tailored to your needs and take into account all aspects of your life.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is among the complementary medical techniques that Dr. Lewis Mantell has embraced. It is one of the non-traditional medical modalities that has been shown in controlled clinical trials to relieve pain and other medical symptoms. Dr. Lewis Mantell is a Medical Acupuncturist (the term given to physicians who are also acupuncturists; most acupuncturists are not physicians), as well as a pain management physician.

When appropriate, Dr. Lewis Mantell incorporates acupuncture into her treatment plan for interested patients. Acupuncture can be successfully used for conditions ranging from arthritis to sciatica, from back and neck pain to arthritis, from fibromyalgia to infertility and many more.

Moreover, many people without medical problems often use acupuncture for relaxation and relief from stress; it can produce a deep sense of calm and “balance”. Other people find it invigorates and energizes them.

Conventional and Complementary

For two decades, Dr. Lewis Mantell has made it her work to continually evaluate the latest scientific research on pain, stress, and informed lifestyle choices. As a result, in addition to treating your symptoms, she can help you sort out the daily barrage of health information that leaves you wondering what to believe; do supplements live up to their claims? Can an optimistic attitude truly improve health?

In her practice, Dr. Lewis Mantell embraces the best of complementary medicine while remaining true to her training as a conventional physician who only recommends therapies that have been proven both safe and effective in carefully controlled scientific studies.

Dr. Lewis Mantell’s approach utilizes each person’s capacity for self-care; you’ll work with her as a team, in a relaxed and professional atmosphere. Together, you will develop an approach to your health that, to the greatest extent possible, puts you in charge of feeling better and staying well.