Hassan Aboumerhi, MD

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, I grew up in the suburbs playing soccer with the dream of becoming a physician. After graduating valedictorian from Mentor High School, I attended Northeast Ohio Medical University's (NEOMED) BS/MD program. My interest in interventions as well as patient advocacy led me to anesthesiology. I had the privilege of completing my residency in the field at the University of Chicago. During my time as a resident, I won the Society for Education in Anesthesia's (SEA) Fellowship to teach anesthesiology to providers and students in Vietnam and maintain an interest in medical education and global outreach

About Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

At the University of Chicago, I developed a passion for managing chronic pain and was honored to be selected for fellowship in multidisciplinary pain management at Northwestern University. After 7 years in Chicago, I decided to return home to the Cleveland area to care for my hometown community.

As an interventional pain physician, I specialize in procedures to treat a wide variety of pain issues. Through rigorous training, I am also equipped with minimally-invasive surgical alternatives including vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty, indirect spine decompression and stabilization, sacroiliac joint fusion, and neuromodulation techniques like spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation. I am interested in contributing to the innovations of my field to meet the challenges of pain medicine head-on.

Education of Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Fellowship: Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, IL
Residency: University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL
Internship: St Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Medical School: Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, OH

Awards

1st Place, Illinois Society of Anesthesiology (ISA) Annual Jeopardy Tournament, Chicago, IL (2019)
2018 Society of Education in Anesthesia (SEA)-Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) Award Fellowship
1st Place, Midwest Anesthesia Residents' Conference, Chicago, IL (2017)
M. Naziruddin Ali Award for Excellence National Scholarship (2013)

Societies

Procedures

Joint Injections

Involve injecting medication into a joint to alleviate pain and inflammation.

Trigger Point Injections

Trigger point injections target muscle knots with medication to relieve pain and enhance muscle function.

Peripheral Nerve Blocks

Peripheral nerve blocks use anesthetic near nerves to temporarily block pain signals.

Epidural Steroid Injections

Epidural steroid injections deliver steroids to the epidural space to reduce spinal inflammation and pain.

Medial Branch Nerve Blocks

Medial branch nerve blocks diagnose and alleviate facet joint-related pain by anesthetizing medial branch nerves.

Radiofrequency Ablations

Radiofrequency ablations disrupt nerve function through radiofrequency energy for longer-lasting pain relief.

Sympathetic plexus blocks

Sympathetic plexus blocks involve injecting nerves to manage conditions like complex regional pain syndrome.

Chemical Neurolysis

Chemical neurolysis uses chemicals to destroy nerves for severe pain.

Advanced Procedures

Kyphoplasty

Kyphoplasty treats spinal fractures by inflating vertebral balloons and injecting bone cement.

Minimally-invasive lumbar decompression, percutaneous

Minimally-invasive lumbar decompression removes tissue to relieve nerve pressure through a small incision.

Sacroiliac joint fusion, percutaneous posterior approach

Sacroiliac joint fusion, percutaneous posterior approach fuses the joint using a minimally invasive back approach.

Peripheral nerve stimulation

Peripheral nerve stimulation implants devices for peripheral nerve electrical stimulation.

Spinal cord stimulation

Spinal cord stimulation places electrodes along the spine for chronic pain electrical management.

Dorsal root ganglion stimulation

Dorsal root ganglion stimulation implants electrodes near ganglia to modulate specific pain signals.

Research & Presentations

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Are new diagnostic criteria needed?

Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) involves widespread ossification of ligaments in the skeleton with associated nonspecific symptoms. Cervical DISH may result in dysphagia and orthopnea but can be missed with accompanying spinal pathology.

Tejas Shah, MD
Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

ABA ITE: Everything You Need to Know

The American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) mandates that anesthesiology resident physicians across the United States complete an annual in-training examination (ITE). The purpose is to prepare residents for the ABA written board examinations: the BASIC and ADVANCED exams. Each year, the resident receives personalized feedback on their low-scoring sections in order to study that content and improve.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Lower Back Pain in an Elderly Patient

Low back pain is an ever-prevalent problem in medicine and an increasingly relevant topic in the aging population. It is the most common cause of work-related disability. The health-related expenditure for chronic back pain is increasing steadily. Proper evaluation and management is key to unnecessary intervention and better outcome when managing chronic back pain.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA
Tariq M. Malik

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

A 55-Year-Old Woman with Chronic Gluteal Pain

Chronic gluteal pain is a common yet varied complaint that persists especially among athletes and the aging population. Generating a broad differential diagnosis including vascular, neurogenic, and musculoskeletal etiologies is key to selecting the proper workup and successive treatment.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA
Tariq M. Malik

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Principles of Treatment

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the United States. Often associated with malignancies, chronic pain has become an indistinguishable component of cancer. Pain management interventions are available to treat cancer pain effectively. Multidisciplinary treatment is necessary with teams of oncologists, pain physicians, and psychiatrists working together to identify cancer states with intractable pain in need of complex interventions.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA
Magdalena Anitescu

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Interscalene Catheters: Complications and Management

About 4.5 million people visit physicians for shoulder pain every year. Most shoulder surgeries are performed in an ambulatory setting and pain control can be problematic during the recovery period. Continuous interscalene block, which is quite effective for postprocedural pain relief, is not risk free. Some postprocedure concerns can be resolved easily over the phone, but others require additional examination, imaging, or even surgical intervention. Effective and safe management of a brachial plexus catheter requires a complete perioperative plan, open communication with the patient and family, and recognition and early treatment of complications. Also needed is a good working relationship between nurses, anesthesia care givers, and orthopedic surgeons.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA
Tariq M. Malik

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA

Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a technique that uses electrical pulsations for pain management. Although this method is applied to treat various pain syndromes, its clinical efficacy has been a frequent subject of debate in the literature.

Hassan Aboumerhi, MD, D.ABA
Tariq M. Malik