Regina doctor's trial of new pain relief method sees success for those taking part

A Regina doctor’s trial of a new pain relief method is helping people like Cassandra Azmann live a normal life.

Azmann has spent years in doctor’s offices seeking relief for her Loin Pain Hematuria Syndrome (LPHS).

“Seven years of laying in bed, seven years of progressively going downhill, to the point where even small things like sitting here in a chair was unfathomable even five days ago,” she told CTV News.

LPHS is an incurable disease, which causes pain around the kidneys. While the pain is located around the kidneys, medical experts are still unsure what causes this pain, making it particularly difficult to find solutions.

However, Azmann has found hope, here in Regina, in the office of Dr Bhanu Prasad, who has spent years seeking to help those living with LPHS live a normal life.

“We had patients coming back to us and saying they were able to do scuba diving, they were able to [skydive], or even going on vacations, lifting their kids, which they couldn’t before,” explained the nephrologist. “I think that’s incredibly gratifying,”

Dr. Prasad is currently finishing up a trial of his pain relief method, which is seeing astounding success.

The minimally invasive procedure involves making an incision which is less than a quarter of an inch, then going up through the femoral artery to the kidneys and implanting a catheter based probe which uses radio frequency to disrupt the nerve pathways.

Azmann is a patient in the trial, and explained that many suffering from LPHS experience difficulty and dismissal from doctors while searching for a diagnosis.

She is part of a large support group for those dealing with the illness, and she has seen firsthand the effects of the struggle.

“We don’t fake being in pain, we fake being okay. The number of stories I have read and I have seen and I have been in contact with, people where they are going to take their life, and there are many who have” Azmann said.

As this feasibility trial reaches its conclusion, the next step is a larger randomized control trial which will hopefully bring Dr. Prasad and his team closer to having this treatment available in healthcare centres across the world.

“The next step is to obviously look at what’s actually driving the pain, find biomarkers for the condition and then hopefully come up with a therapeutic solutions that are non invasive,” he said.