Dr Shankar Ramaswamy

Primary Specialism:

Pain Management

Education:

I am a consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Management at St Bartholomew’s and Royal London Hospital. I am the clinical lead for pain management for the Newham MSK collaboration. I am also the Lead for Undergraduate and Postgraduate education in pain management at Barts Health. I also hold a Honorary visiting Senior Lecturer position at the University of Edinburgh and I run one of the modules for the MSc Pain Management. I did my MD in Anaesthesia (Medal scholar) at PGIMER, Chandigarh, India, which is one of the premier postgraduate medical education centres in the country. I did my anaesthetic training in the UK at The South East Scotland rotation and I received a Certificate of Specialist Training in Anaesthesia and Pain Management in 2014. I also did an Advanced Pain Fellowship at Imperial Healthcare, London. I manage patients both in the out-patient setting including multi-disciplinary clinics as well as in the in-patient complex pain ward rounds and regularly perform a variety of interventions. I have extensive expertise in managing a wide variety of acute pain and chronic pain conditions including back pain, neck pain, whiplash injury, sports injury, post-surgical pain, cancer pain, chronic musculoskeletal (such as Fibromyalgia) and neuropathic pain. I offer a comprehensive patient-centred care during my consultation and arrive at a treatment plan, which is agreeable for the patient. I have excellent intervention skills and I offer a variety of simple and complex pain procedures such as • Cervical and Lumbar facet joint/ medial branch injections • Epidural/ root block (all spinal levels including cervical, thoracic and lumbar levels) • Radiofrequency treatment to medial branch/ nerve roots (all spinal levels) or peripheral nerves, • Complex pain interventions such as splanchnic nerve block • 8% Capsaicin application • Ultrasound guided interventions (both anaesthetic nerve blocks and complex pain interventions including MSK interventions) • Neuromodulation (including spinal cord stimulation, peripheral neurostimulation including peripheral electrical nerve stimulation). I have wide expertise in performing interventions both under X-ray imaging as well as under ultrasound. My anaesthetic practice involves a wide variety of general and orthopaedic anaesthetic list with particular expertise in ultrasound guided nerve blocks including inserting nerve catheters