April 3, 2015: The Pain Management Unit at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) has introduced Neuromodulation procedure for treating patients who have chronic pain and disability. The hospital is the first in East Africa to use this mode of treatment performed on 43 patients by a multidisciplinary team of specialists who included pain medicine specialists, neurosurgeons pain management therapists and psychologists from the hospital.
The procedure is used as a last resort for both cancer and non-cancer patients when all other modes of treatment have failed. In addition, this treatment procedure is performed on patients who have been suffering from persistent pain for a period of at least two months with the underlying cause not having been found.
Dr Thikra Sharif, Pain Medicine Specialist and head of the Pain Management Unit at Aga Khan University Hospital, said, “Chronic pain that is undiagnosed, or untreated leads to disability and loss of proper functioning. This has a negative impact on a patient’s quality of life resulting in other illnesses such as depression, severe anxiety and consequently disability and loss of productivity. In such cases pain killers are ineffective and treatment requires a multidisciplinary team of specialists including neurosurgeons, pain management therapists and psychologists.”
via http://hospitals.aku.edu/nairobi/aboutus/News/Pages/AKUH-Neuromodulation-procedure.aspx
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