Dr Neal Evans

I am a full-time Consultant in Pain Management specialising in spinal pain conditions. After qualifying from the Royal London Hospital, I went on to do research at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, before pain training at Oxford University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London.

I believe that treating patients with chronic pain starts with an accurate diagnosis leading to a specific treatment pathway. I coordinate with other specialists from spinal and orthopaedic surgery, neurology, sports medicine and physical therapists in a multi-disciplinary team approach to diagnosis and treatment.

By combining accurate history taking and careful physical examination, we use MRI, CT, ultrasound scans and X-rays to establish a precise diagnosis wherever possible to guide therapy.

Back and neck pain symptoms are some of the most common problems referred to the clinic and typically accounts for large amounts of distress and disability for patients. Low back and neck pain account for the vast majority of the spinal conditions we see and manage. We use localised interventions wherever possible, to achieve long term results through injection and radiofrequency therapy.

My main clinical interest is in treating pain with radiofrequency therapy. By inserting specially designed needle-like probes adjacent to nerves causing pain symptoms, we can replicate the pain distribution using micro-electrical stimulation. This aides the precise location of the pain, which can then be desensitised using a pulsing mode also called neuromodulation or denervated using thermal (heat) effects also known as ablation. These are long term treatments for chronic pain symptoms.

Since 2018 I have been Clinical Lead for Pain medicine for Bucks NHS Trust. I am a tutor for the Royal College of Anaesthetists in Pain Medicine and have lectured and run instructional classes nationally and internationally. I have been a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists since 1998 and was appointed Consultant in Pain Medicine at Bucks Hospitals NHS Trust in 2003 based at Amersham, Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals. I became a founding Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2007. Later that year, I became the Regional Advisor in Pain Medicine for Oxford deanery.