Dr. Sherdil Nath, the world’s leading specialist in interventional algesiology, led the educational workshop in Prague
A special guest, the legend of world interventional algesiology, Dr. Sherdil Nath from Sweden on the occasion of the first edition of the EuroPainClinics educational workshop “One Man Show”, which took place on May 17 in Prague. He led a professional workshop for doctors on the topic of facet pain treatment and radiofrequency techniques.
Medical knowledge and practical clinical experience are shared by EuroPainClinics and Interventional Pain Academy through their knowledge platform, in the form of their own educational programs and activities on an internal and external level. We are honored that the renowned interventional specialist Dr. Sherdil Nath accepted the invitation of MUDr. Róbert Rapčan, FIPP, MBA, PhD., medical director of EuroPainClinics, to conduct a special educational seminar for the doctors of our clinical workplaces as part of a new educational project.
Dr. Nath during the workshop focused on two main topics – the diagnosis and treatment of lumbar (stem) and cervical (neck) facet pain and the mini-invasive technique of radiofrequency denervation, but during the day a whole range of related issues naturally resonated. The seminar was conceived as a theoretical teaching and live cases – specific procedures with real patients.
After the ceremonial opening of the workshop with accompanying speech of MUDr. Rapčan, Dr. Nath with grace and enthusiasm, gave a personal presentation in which he summarized the course of his own professional career, the key moments and challenges he had overcome and which confirmed his belief that the decision to devote himself to the field of pain management was the right choice for him.
The next lecture already opened the first of the main topics of the workshop, the treatment of pain originating from the facet joints and the treatment technique for their treatment – radiofrequency ablation of the lumbar (stem) and cervical (neck) facet joints. Pain from the facet joints is one of the most common back pains, which also often causes significant difficulties for patients of a recurring episodic nature, or as an unrelenting chronic pain that persists throughout the patient’s life.
Precise diagnostics including an interventional test of small nerves around these joints – the so-called medial brachial blockade, are the basis for further treatment using radiofrequency denervation or ablation. The lecture summarized a detailed description of the diagnosis and the therapeutic procedure, including the precise determination of the needle placement point, precise X-ray focus, its own technical design and a summary of the clinical results.
The second part of the workshop Dr. Nath dedicated to a thorough explanation of the issue of percutaneous radiofrequency neurotomy of the cervical facet joint. He focused again on the importance of precise diagnostics, including the necessity of accurate testing of all structures that must be taken into account when defining the source of pain, whether the aforementioned facet joints, cervical intervertebral discs or spinal nerves.
He focused on certain details of the technique of radiofrequency denervation in the cervical and thoracic spine and also dealt with the issue of Whiplash syndrome and other post-traumatic neck syndromes. He also drew attention to the connection between the innervation of the facet joints, the autonomic nervous system and the spinal nerves, and the associated referred pain. Subsequently, Dr. Nath proceeded to perform interventional procedures on real patients. Above all, this part opened up a wide space for doctors to discuss useful knowledge directly in practice.
At the end of the workshop, MUDr. Róbert Rapčan, who highlighted the highly professional value of the workshop conducted by Dr. Nath as a valuable opportunity for doctors who had the opportunity to gain new professional experience or a new invention for their clinical practice. In his personal thank you, he also did not forget to mention that Dr. Nath is one of the key personalities and teachers who stood at the beginning of his professional career and who significantly influenced his decision to specialize in interventional algesiology. All doctors very positively appreciated the overall course of the workshop, the high-quality teaching content and the benefit for their further work with patients with chronic pain.
Thanks to all the participants for their active participation and to all the organizers headed by MUDr. Rapčan for the great implementation of this extraordinary event and we look forward to the next edition of the series of Interventional Pain Academy and EuroPainClinics educational workshops.
Dr. Sherdil Nath
Leading Interventional Pain Medicine Expert & Teacher
By treating pain with a focus on the spine, Dr. Sherdil Nath has been working since 1972. After several years of clinical practice in Great Britain, he settled in Sweden, where he started working as an anesthesiologist and gradually developed the field of pain treatment, which was relatively unknown as a separate field in Sweden at the time. He became a pioneer in the elimination of pain using nerve blocks, and with the success of the treatment in a skyrocketing number of patients, he gained an increasing reputation as an expert in pain management, not only in Sweden, but also in Norway and Denmark, led numerous studies and founded a pain management clinic. Since the beginning of the 1990s, he has focused closely on the accurate diagnosis of X-ray-guided blockages. He then summarized the methodology of this technique in his research work at Norrland University Hospital in the Swedish city of Umea. Precision diagnostics and radiofrequency denervation procedures are his main interests, which he has been working on for more than 40 years. He has won worldwide recognition and respect for the excellence of his work and has been passing on his rich clinical experience to generations of younger doctors for over 15 years, teaching the theory of interventional pain management techniques and conducting practical cadaveric workshops.
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Photo: Tomáš Puskáš