Nelson Hendler, M.D., M.S., is the Clinical
Director at Mensana Clinic. He authored 3 books, 29 medical
textbook chapters, and 50 articles in medical journals, in addition to
giving over 208 lectures about pain, nationally and internationally.
Dr. Hendler is on the faculty of an internationally renowned medical
school, and the dental school in Baltimore. He provides direct medical
care for all the patients, and sees the patients, himself, 7 days a week.
Mensana Clinic is a multi-disciplinary diagnostic
clinic for patients with chronic pain, such as low
back pain, neck pain, limb pain, face pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy,
nerve entrapments, radiculopathies, broken fusions, poor recovery after
laminectomy, and pain for which there is no diagnosis.
Mensana Clinic was listed in Business Week as one of the 8 best pain treatment centers in the United States, along with Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Cleveland Clinic. Also, Mensana Clinic was described in a key article by US News & World Report, March 17, 1997. The article described the patient David Bogan who was a victim (back injury) in an auto accident. His chronic pain started after surgery and no one could treat him. He has been to 20 doctors, drained his savings and still has the pain. He even started thinking about suicide, but he was lucky because he was referred to Mensana Clinic.
In terms of patient referrals, 98% of the referrals to Mensana Clinic
are from physicians. Also, over 75% of the residential patients at Mensana
Clinic are from 32 states and 8 foreign countries. Mensana Clinic specializes
in patients with auto accident injuries
and workers compensation, as well as those with difficult to diagnose pain
problems. Mensana Clinic has published outcome studies, available on request,
which document that:
a) between 40% to 66% of the patients referred to Mensana Clinic have
not been adequately diagnosed before being seen at Mensana Clinic.
As a result of this finding, extensive diagnostic evaluations, using a
number of different types of physicians, are usually required. All consulting
physicians are on the full time or part-time faculty of one of the 2 medical
schools in Baltimore.
b) between 50% to 55% of the patients seen at Mensana Clinic are referred
for additional surgery.
c) In a group of patients, for whom the insurance companies report
a return to work rate of less than 1%, Mensana Clinic
has a return to work rate of 62.5% for
auto accident patients and 19.5% for
workers compensation patients. Mensana Clinic have 19 years
of experience in treating chronic pain patients. During that time, 1,234
residential patients and 5,459 outpatients were treated. Also, Mensana’s
facilities include its clinical offices and the Mensana Inn, as a convenience
or out-of-town patients.