We held our first CES Study Day at NSIC Stoke Mandeville on Monday 2nd December. The purpose of the study day was to raise awareness and improve knowledge of Cauda Equina Syndrome amongst the NHS professional network.
We heard from many experts in CES including Dr Nisaharan Srikandarajah – Consultant Neurosurgeon, Dr Shyam S Swarna – Consultant in Spinal Injuries and Dr Neil Dawson – Emergency Medicine Consultant. We also heard from Dr Mike Hutton – Consultant Spinal Surgeon who shared details of the Get It Right First Time (GIRFT) spinal emergency report.
Poorna Veerappa – Advanced Spinal Practitioner and Stephen Hill – Consultant MSK Physiotherapist and MSK Sonographer also shared their expertise and knowledge of CES.
Hewa Khalilifar who is our CBT Therapist shared her knowledge of the psychological considerations of living with CES which was really interesting and moving to hear.
Martin Brown shared his experience of CES from a patient’s point of view which was very moving and really highlighted the impact CES can have on individuals throughout their life, not just at the emergency surgery stage.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Firas Sarhan – Clinical Education Lead who made the whole day possible for us as a charity.
We received some amazing feedback from the attendees and look forward to hosting more study days across the UK in 2025. Here is some of the feedback we received from attendees when asked ‘what did you learn from the day’
| 1. Lifelong and psychological impacts of CES 2. Significant impact we as AHP’s can have on these patients 3. Importance of pathway and early scanning |
| Cauda equina patients should also been managed on a chronic pathway Early diagnosis equals better outcome Because a patient is walking doesn’t automatically negate that the patient might have cauda equina Current research on cauda equina is based on retrospective cases Cauda equina patients need adjustment at home |
| The need of same day scan for diagnosis of CES |
| 1. That there are a number of areas in which there still need to be improvements in recognition and diagnosis of CES and joined up care post surgery. 2. To be aware that after the physical crash of the injury comes the psychological “second crash” when a patient reaches +18/24 months post surgery and realises things won’t get much better than they are and that can be like starting the rehab process over again. 3. That there is great optimism for a universal standard of care in relation to CES by knowing about and applying the GIRFT pathway. Interesting to see the development to the >2/52 symptom “Blackpool Pathway” to pick up those patients who the GIRFT pathway might miss. Also, the invaluable importance of signposting into services by the charitable sector like CE Champions. |
