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Neuromodulation and Regenerative Medicine Advances

Highlights from the American Society of Interventional Physicians annual meeting, including neuromodulation, humanistic care, vertebral augmentation, regenerative medicine, controlled substance prescribing, and more.

There are numerous medical conferences that Practical Pain Management (PPM) tries to attend and cover. We are fortunate that when the PPM staff can’t attend a conference, we usually can call upon one of our expert editorial board members to act as our “roving reporter.”

We were fortunate to have Elmer G. Pinzon, MD, MPH, physiatrist at the University Spine and Sports Specialists in Knoxville, Tennessee, attend this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this past April.

Dr. Pinzon offers his highlights of the meeting, which included a variety of informative presentations on topics ranging from neuromodulation to humanistic care, vertebral augmentation, regenerative medicine, controlled substance prescribing, and much more.

The early Thursday morning session began with the Raj-Racz Distinguished Lectures provided by the esteemed ASIPP board chairman/CEO Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD; Abraham Verghese, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine; and Richard North, MD, president, Neuromodulation Foundation, Inc. Dr. Verghese discussed “Delivering Humanistic Care in the Era of High Tech and Learning Resources,” providing humanistic and historical perspectives on the specialty of interventional pain medicine (IPM). Dr. North discussed “Evolving Concepts of Neuromodulation:  Past, Present, and Future,” providing a historical perspective on the origins on neuromodulation as well as a look at the exciting expanding prospects for interventional pain physicians who use this technology for advanced, chronic pain patients.

In the late Thursday morning session, Phillippe Hernigou, MD, chief of orthopedic surgery department, University Paris East, France, discussed “Innovations in Stem Cell Therapy for Musculoskeletal Injuries” and the developing, progressive, novel approaches available to treat our musculoskeletal pain patient population, as well as and the universality of interventional pain technology on a global state. Also in the late morning session, Joshua Hirsch, MD, academic director, ASIPP, presented on “Evidence-Based Vertebral Augmentation: Current Perspectives and Future Strategies,” covering the future multivariate utility of vertebral augmentation in these unfortunate, suffering pain patients.

The day progressed to a luncheon symposium sponsored by Boston Scientific Corporation on the topic of “Patient Variability and the Dynamic Nature of Pain: Customizing Therapy With Multiple Waveform Options,” by Richard Bowman, MD; Nameer Haider, MD; and Louis Raso, MD; moderated by Richard Rauck, MD.

The Thursday afternoon session began with the classic breakout session series, during which registered participants could choose from 3 tracks depending on their particular interests: Regenerative Medicine, Emerging Concepts in IPM, and Resident/Fellow.  Alternating between the Regenerative Medicine and Emerging Concepts in IPM tracks, I attended interesting lectures in the Regenerative Medicine track by Aaron Calodney, MD (session chair); Phillippe Hernigou, MD; Annu Navani, MD; David Karli, MD; Steve Aydin, MD; and George Chang Chien, MD, covering considerations in regenerative medicine including stem cell/mesenchymal concentration for bone marrow cell therapy in the elderly, regenerative medical treatments for degenerative disc disease, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and regenerative medicine for osteoarthritis (OA) and soft tissue/tendon injuries, and the practical considerations of the business aspects of establishing an office setting for regenerative medicine.

The lectures in the Emerging Concepts in IPM track by Peter Staats, MD, (session chair), Amol Soin, MD, Sean Li, MD, Ramsin Benyamin, MD, Sal Abdi, MD, Gabor Racz, MD, Sudhir Diwan, MD, Ricardo Vallejo, MD, Jay Grider, MD, and Steve Aydin, MD, covered new and older techniques for peripheral neuropathy, phantom pain neuromodulation, lysis of epidural adhesions, complex regional pain syndrome, spinal cord/dorsal column stimulation, and OA of the knee. I found that alternating between the breakout session tracks was great for quenching my desire to review the current and past treatments, but I always was feeling that I missed out on another good lecture at the same time as the one I was attending.

Continue reading the full article from Practical Pain Management

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