List of PN Doctors and Therapists

Last Updated Jan 19, 2006

North America

North America - Physical Therapy

Europe

*Physical therapy is less invasive and has less risk than surgery.

**Steroids in nerve blocks as a form of treatment seem to rarely work. See Special update on steroids. However, unless you are sure PNE is what you have, steroids have apparently proven effective for other types of perineal pain, so you should not rule them out.

***Surgical options must be weighed very carefully. In the opinion of the publisher, trans-gluteal decompression surgery is most likely overly invasive for people who do not exhibit rectal symptoms, and also can often result in critical loss of SI joint stability.

North America

The Houston, Texas Team - Doctors Renney, Popeney, and Ansell went to Nantes in May, 2002 for a week. They assisted or observed on six surgeries, diagnosis, and interviews as part of training. Their first PNE surgery was perfomed in Houston in early July 2002. As of the end of 2003 they have completed over 90 surgeries. Principle team members are:

Dr. Ken Renney, diagnosis and team coordination.
Dr. Charles Popeney, Neurologist. PNMLT, other tests.
Dr. James Murphy, Radiologist. Nerve blocks. These are now also done by Doctors Lee and Khan.
Dr. Lee V. Ansell, Neurosurgeon. PNE surgery.

Appointment Coordinator: Dr. Ken Renney.

Please note that email is by far the best way to contact Dr. Renney. If you need to talk to him, email him via the secure messaging system on his website and he will schedule a call to you. If you call his office and ask to talk to him, this will cause an interruption, so email is preferred. Dr. Ken Renny does good phone interviews - very helpful for patients who must travel long distances to Houston.

On August 19, 2003 Dr. Ken Renney gave a guest lecture about PNE on the Interstitial Cystitis Network. Note - This lecture transcript contains an error. We have confirmed this with Ken. The phrase "2/3 of PNE cases are men" should be "2/3 of PNE cases are women."

Dr. Sheldon Jordan - Neurologist. Guided blocks and the PNMLT.

2811 Wilshire Blvd. #800
Santa Monica, California 90403, USA
Phone 310 829-5968, ext 244

 

Dr. Stephen Irving Mann - PNMLT.

2801- K Street, suite 410
Sacramento, California. 95816, USA
Phone 916 733-5024

 

Dr. Allan Gordon - Neurologist. Guided blocks through the Centre.

The Wasser Pain Management Centre
Mount Sinai Hospital
600 University Avenue, Room 1160
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5G 1X5
Phone 416 586-5997

 

Dr. David Redmond - Physiatrist. PNMLT, guided blocks available soon.

Dr. Redmond has a keen interest in PN, and has studied advanced electrodiagnostics under the esteemed Dr. Benson of Indiana. Email him first to discuss your situation, then phone if you want to make an appointment.

Email: mdredmond(at)prodigy(d0t)net

1910 Blanding Street
Columbia, South Carolina 29201

803-256-4107, ask for my area.

Dr. Stanley J. Antolak - Urologist. PNMLT, guided blocks, surgery.

Formerly of the Mayo Clinic, he now runs The Center for Urologic and Pelvic Pain in Woodbury, MN. It is a suburb of St. Paul and is only 20 minutes from the MSP International Airport. Please see this statement by Dr. Antolak regarding his diagnosis and treatment philosophies.

See the Center's website at www.centerforurologicandpelvicpain.com

Dr. Aaron Filler - Neurosurgeon

Based in Santa Monica, CA, Dr. Filler offers state-of-the art diagnosis as well as surgical intervention.

See his website at www.nervemed.com for more information.

Dr. Jerome Weiss - Urologist. Nerve blocks, Physical Therapy, and Heparin

Based in San Francisco, CA, Dr. Weiss offers expert diagnosis using palpation and either guided or unguided nerve blocks. He and his team of physical therapists are at the forefront of non-surgical treatment of PNE. He is also the innovator in the use of Heparin for the treatment of pudendal neuralgia.

See his website at www.jmweissmd.com for more information.

 

Beyond Basics Physical Therapy - Team of physical therapists specializing in
pelvic floor dysfunction, all with extensive experience treating pudendal
nerve injuries.

beyondbasicsphysicaltherapy.com
1560 Broadway, Suite 311
New York, NY 10036
212-354-2622
early morning and evening hours

Europe

Aix-en-Provence, France Team - This team utilizes the Trans-Ischio Rectal approach which is geared towards decompressing the pudendal nerve while leaving the nerve untouched and unmoved. The nerve is decompressed without severing the sacrotuburous ligament. With the Trans-Ischio Rectal approach, surgical indication is based upon the nature and the localization of the nerve lesion. This data is determined by electrophysiological testing: sacral reflex, concentric needle EMG, cerebral somesthesic evoked potentials, and PNMLT. Intraoperative monitoring is essential in assisting the surgical team to: accurately localize the entrapment; know exactly how much of the ligament(s) need to be severed and windowed and in conclusion; to control the effectiveness of the surgery.  This procedure allows for access to all possible sites of entrapment and decompression. The incision is made in the back of the vagina in the female and between the scrotum and the rectum in the male. In both sexes, a retractor is used to slightly move the rectum to one side to reach the ischio rectal fossea which leads to the internal side of the pelvis where both left and right sites of all possible pudendal entrapments can be viewed, tested and decompressed.  The team follows the path of the nerve as they do the decompression in conjunction with nerve testing to guide them throughout the procedure. An endoscope is used only when there is a need due to anatomical abnormalities or difficult viewing.

Dr. Eric Bautrant - Pelvic surgeon who has performed 270+ surgeries using the Trans-Ischio Rectal approach for the past five years (since 2000) reporting an 86% success rate of excellent results to totally cured in patients in France and other European countries. Since 2004, he has began performing decompression surgery on US patients traveling to Aix-en-Provence. Prior to utilizing the Trans-Ischio Rectal approach, Dr. Bautrant was performing PNE decompression using the Trans-gluteal approach. He has eleven years experience decompressing the pudendal nerve at both the sacrospinus ligament and the alcocks canal. He is now only using the trans-Ischio rectal approach since he and his team are able to decompress the nerve successfully at all areas of entrapment using this new method with great success.    

Dr Eric de Bisschop - Neurologist with outstanding accomplishments in the field of electrophysiological testing. He has also publishing a book used by the medical community dealing with all to date diagnosis using electrophysiological testing and procedures.  He along with Dr. Bautrant developed the testing necessary to determine pre-surgically if the pudendal nerve is entrapped. He claims to be able to determine exactly where the entrapment(s) are located before surgery. This is confirmed during surgery, before decompression begins.    

Le Grand Angle , 4 place Barthelemy Niollon
13100 Aix En Provence
Telephone (from US):  011-33 442 913 052 
Fax (from the US):   011-33-442-916-254

Email: eric(d0t)bautrant(at)wanadoo(d0t)fr

The Nantes, France Team - Since 1987 this team has handled over 4,000 PN cases and over 500 surgeries, with very good results. This team invented the first widely successful diagnosis and treatment protocol for PNE. In 2002 they completed a randomized clinical trial showing that PNE surgery is highly effective, something no other team or doctor in the world (that we are aware of) has done. Principle team members are:

Dr. Labat - Neurologist. Diagnosis via EMG, PNMLT. digital rectal exam, and other tests.
Dr. Riant - Anesthesiologist. Nerve blocks and general diagnosis.

Dr. Guerineau - Kinestherapist and physical therapist. Muscle reeducation to eliminate spasm as a source of PN pain.
Prof Robert - Neurosurgeon. PNE surgery.

Appointment coordinators are:

Greg(d0t)Thibeaux(at)hcahealthcare(d0t)com (he is in the US)
judy_b(at)dsl(d0t)pipex(d0t)com (she is in the UK)

 

The Geneva, Switzerland Team - Dr. Bruno Roche. Surgeon specializing in coloproctology and perineal surgery. Prof. Roger Robert (see above) trained him in 1999 for the diagnosis and treatment of pudendal nerve entrapment and as of March 2005 has consulted and treated more than 400 patients suffering from perineal pain. The team has diagnosed 112 pudendal nerve compressions and has developed a technique of infiltration under stimulation. Also as of March 2005 Dr. Roche has performed 70 pudendal nerve decompressions with a success rate approaching 70%. The team is composed of:

1. Dr. Alex Cahana - Anesthetist, chief of the pain clinic, specializing in pain evaluation and block infiltrations
2. Dr. Joan Robert-Yak - Canadian medical graduate, responsible for neuromodulation treatment as well as manometry and PNTML
3. PD Dr. Bruno Roche - Chief of the Unit of Proctology as well as performing echography, endosonography, block infiltrations and PNE surgery

Together, they can help patients in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Romanian and Chinese

Appointment coordinator - Madame Martine Marteletta

Email: martine(d0t)marteletta(at)hcuge(d0t)ch

Tel: + 41 22 37 27 934

Fax: + 41 22 37 27 909

Website: www.proctology.ch  (includes map and hotel information)

Dr. Gérard Amarenco - Neurologist, nerve blocks. This is the man who did the first research about PN in 1987.

Rothschild Hospital
33 boulevard de Picpus
75012 Paris, FRANCE
Telephone +33 1 40 19 36 86

Dr Andrew Baranowski - Does guided nerve blocks. Specialises in diagnosing/treating pain of uro-genital origin.

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG
Telephone: 020 7837 3611

UK's Sheffield University conducts the PNLT, according to their webpage. Submitted by Gary on August 7, 2002. We cannot vouch for the quality of this test yet. (Anyone, is this test good?)

Others - We've heard from Adrean Militereau that PNE surgery is being done in Romania, but do not have a contact. There are also several surgeons in France who have been doing PNE surgery for years. (Are there any other PNE surgeons in Europe outside of France? What about those doing reeducation or nerve blocks with steroids?)