Consultant, Department of Pain Management, Cleveland Clinic
Executive Editor, Pain Practice
Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of England
Fellow, Royal College of Anesthetists
Fellow, American Academy of Pain Management
Past President, 1989 – 1990 American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA)
Past President, North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS)
Editorial Board Member, Neuromodulation Practice
Editorial Board Member, Pain Physician

Called a “giant” in the field of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and a “pioneering clinician, researcher and inventor across the spectrum of pain medicine” by colleague Richard Rosenquist, MD, Michael Stanton-Hicks, MBBS, Dr.Med.(Düs) has been on the staff of the Cleveland Clinic since 1988.

Dr. Stanton-Hicks has been an anesthesiologist for more than 50 years. He began a career in medicine upon graduating from Adelaide University with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1962. Since then, Dr. Stanton-Hicks has received board equivalent certification from the American Board of Anesthesiology, in addition to being a diplomate of the American Board of Pain Medicine. He went on to receive a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Düsseldorf in 1984 while serving as a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

His interest in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) began in the 1970s. He completed postgraduate training in anesthesia in 1968, and joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1970. The chairman of anesthesiology was Dr. John J. Bonica. A pioneer in pain medicine, Dr. Bonica had encountered many cases of CRPS I and II in the thousands of WWII veterans he treated from the Pacific Theater while he was chief of anesthesia at Madigan Army Hospital at Fort Lewis in Tacoma. Before leaving Washington in 1975, Dr. Stanton-Hicks met Dr. Yoshio Hosobuchi, a neurosurgeon who had done early work in the use of neurostimulation of the central nervous system for chronic pain.

Dr. Stanton-Hicks gained more experience with neuromodulation in 1987 at the University of Mainz, where he had hands-on experience implanting infusion pumps. In 1988, he joined the Cleveland Clinic. There, worked for five years with Sam Hassenbusch, MD, and they undertook a large number of spinal and peripheral nerve stimulation procedures for chronic neuropathic and CRPS pain.

Sessions at Neurovations Events

2015 Napa Pain Conference

  • 1st Annual Legacy Lecture

2014 Napa Pain Conference

  • Neuromodulation for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

2012 Napa Pain Conference

  • Looking at New Treatment Algorithm for CRPS

2011 Napa Pain Conference

  • CRPS State of the Art

2010 Napa Pain Conference

2009 Napa Pain Conference

  • Spinal Cord Stimulation for CRPS

2007 Napa Pain Conference

  • Spinal Cord Stimulation in the Treatment of CRPS
  • New Treatment Approaches for Neuropathic Pain
  • Peripheral Nerve Stimulation
  • Lab Leader: Spinal Cord Stimulation

1997 Napa Pain Conference

Awards

  • 2017  ASRA’s John Bonica Lecturer
  • 2017  NANS Giant of Neuromodulation honoree
  • 2015  Napa Pain Conference’s Legacy Lecturer
  • 2013  Lifetime Achievement Award, New York New Jersey Society of Intervention Pain Physicians (NY/NYSIPP)
  • 2013  Distinguished Service Award,  American Society of Regional Anesthesia (ASRA)

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