The path-breaking article by the Spine research team of Ganga Hospital headed by Prof. S. Rajasekaran has won the prestigious ISSLS Award for Best International Spine Research for the year 2022. The team has created world record by winning the award five times - 2004, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
Coimbatore: The reputed Ganga Hospital has bagged the prestigious ISSLS Award for Best International Spine Research for the year 2022. The team led by Prof. S. Rajasekaran, Director of Spine Research of Ganga Hospital have created world record by winning the prestigious ISSLS award five times -- 2004, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
A team of spine surgeons and radiologists has won the international award for their path-breaking research on “Lactate in Lumbar Discs – Metabolic Waste or Energy Biofuel”. The research work primarily focuses on insights from in-vivo MRS and T2R analysis following exercise and Nimodipine in healthy volunteers.
It is laudatory that the research paper has been shortlisted from 50 research papers submitted by eminent scientists from around the world in the field of Spine Research.
The study was performed by a group of eminent researchers including Dr S Rajasekaran, Dr Pushpa BT, Dr Murugesh Easwaran, Dr Rishi Mugesh Kanna and Dr Ajoy Prasad Shetty.
A top-level international committee headed by Prof Helena Brisby, Gothenburg University, Sweden selected the Ganga Hospital team for the award, which carries an award of USD 20,000 (INR 16,27,330) along with publication of the research article as a lead scientific article in the acclaimed European Spine Journal.
Additionally, the paper will also be presented in a plenary session during the “Spine Week” in Melbourne, Australia, where more than 2500 spine surgeons and spine researchers from all international societies will come together.
Briefing about the study, the team of researchers said “ Low back pain is the most common musculoskeletal disorder in the entire world and 80% of the population have at least one major episode in their lifetime with 15% of them becoming chronic. It is also the most common cause for work-days lost across the whole world.
With the main cause for back pain is disc herniation and disc degeneration, scientists around the world are focused on how to prevent the degenerative process. Central to the research focus is to identify disc degeneration before it becomes irreversible. The research from Ganga Hospital employed advanced and novel cutting-edge MRI sequences which was capable of identifying changes at the molecular level.Even it meant the routine MRI was normal.
This will open wide opportunities for interventional methods to prevent degeneration, and thereby avoid chronic low back pain. If degeneration is stopped, it will also avoid the millions of low back pain surgery performed globally every year."
Ganga Hospital is leading from the front in the field of “Spine Research”The researchers also noted how Ganga Hospital is leading from the front in the field of “Spine Research” among global hospitals.
According to researchers the award is something that the hospital has been accorded many times, over the years.
Having won many national and international awards, the the Spine Unit of Ganga Hospital has placed Coimbatore in the world map of spine research. The team has also created world record by winning the prestigious ISSLS award five times in the year 2004, 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
Last year, the team created a new record by winning the prestigious North American Spine Society outstanding research award continuously for four years, in a first.
The spine research team of Ganga Hospitals have also been the proud recipient of the Asia Pacific Spine Research Award ,multiple times, the European Spine Outstanding Research award and the British Spine award in addition to the numerous national awards by the Medical Council of India.