Teaching the Next Generation: Cancer Pain Nerve Blocks at the National Conference on Onco-Anaesthesia, Criticare & Pain Management

 I was recently invited as Faculty at the National Conference on Onco-Anaesthesia, Criticare & Pain Management, where I had the opportunity to share my clinical experience on advanced interventional techniques for long-term cancer pain relief.

As part of the academic proceedings, I delivered focused sessions on various cancer pain nerve blocks — procedures that, in my experience, offer significant and lasting relief to patients suffering from chronic, treatment-resistant abdominal and visceral cancer pain when conventional pain management approaches fall short.

Beyond the lecture sessions, I also conducted a live, hands-on workshop within the operating theatre premises, where I demonstrated key abdominal nerve block techniques to an audience of 40 students and trainee physicians. The workshop covered three major interventional procedures I have relied on extensively in my practice:

• Celiac Plexus Block — for relief of upper abdominal cancer pain, particularly in pancreatic and gastric malignancies
• Superior Hypogastric Plexus Block — targeting pelvic cancer pain arising from cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancers
• Splanchnic Nerve Block — an alternative approach for visceral abdominal pain, often used when other blocks are less accessible

Demonstrating these procedures live, in real time, on actual OT premises allowed me to give the next generation of anaesthesiologists and pain specialists direct exposure to techniques that are often only discussed theoretically. In my experience, hands-on teaching of this kind plays a vital role in building clinical confidence among young physicians and, ultimately, in improving cancer pain care standards across the country.

Sessions like these reflect my continued commitment to advancing palliative and pain medicine in India — bridging the gap between academic knowledge and bedside practice for the benefit of patients living with cancer.

— Dr. P.N. Jain