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Gabor Bela Racz
Gabor Racz in 2010
Born	1937 (age 86–87) Budapest, Hungary
Education	Semmelweis University Medical School University of Liverpool, M.B., Ch.B
Spouse	Enid Racz
Children	4
Medical career
Profession	Professor anesthesiologist pain management physician
Field	Anesthesiology pain management pharmacology emergency & critical care
Institutions	Messer-Racz International Pain Center
Sub-specialties	Interventional pain management CRPS
Research	Chronic complex pain, including cancer pain

Gábor Béla Rácz (born 1937) is a board certified anesthesiologist and professor at Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC) in Lubbock, Texas, where he is also Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Anesthesiology and Co-Director of Pain Services. He has worked in the field of chronic back pain and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). He designed the Racz Catheter, and developed what became known as the Racz procedure for epidural lysis of adhesions, a procedure used to reduce pain and inflammation involving passage of a catheter endoscopically or percutaneously under fluoroscopic guidance into the epidural space of the spine to break up adhesions from around entrapped nerves.

College and early medical training

Racz was born in Budapest, Hungary. He attended Semmelweis University Medical School until November 1956, when he fled Budapest with his future wife, sister, and brother-in-law after the Soviets invaded the city in response to the Hungarian Revolution. Racz fled to London, England, and in 1957 was able to attend second-year medical school with help from Betty and Ian McWhinney, M.D. In 1962, Racz graduated from the University of Liverpool School of Medicine, having earned his Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.) and Bachelor of Surgery (Ch.B) degrees, and served as house surgeon and physician at the Royal Southern Hospital in Liverpool. In 1963, he moved to the United States for an anesthesiology residency at State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, where he worked in numerous positions, including associate attending anesthesiologist and respiratory consultant in the neurological head injury unit. He also served as a consultant for the Veterans Administration Hospital, and the UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich, New York.

Career at Texas Tech

In 1977, Racz joined the then-new Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) as chairman of Anesthesiology and held that position until March 1, 1999. He also served as Director of Pain Services from 1977 to 2006. His title was changed to Co-Director when Mark Boswell joined the department as Interim Department Chairman and Director of the new Messer-Racz Pain Center. The center was named for both Racz and for Gene and Carlene Messer, who made a generous donation to the project.

In December 1998, the University Medical Center named him to a $1 million endowed chair in recognition of his work at TTHUSC and the University Medical Center. He was the first recipient of the Grover E. Murray Professorship, TTHUSC's highest award, in 1996.

In 2004, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. The New York/New Jersey Societies of Interventional Pain Physicans awarded Racz a lifetime achievement award in October, 2012.

Racz procedure

Racz's work with nerve stimulators, spinal cord stimulators, radiofrequency thermocoagulation, and a wide range of other pain management procedures is being used in interventional pain practices throughout the world. He developed new designs in medical equipment and devices.

In the 1980s, Racz developed a procedure to treat patients with chronic low back pain caused by scar tissue due to previous surgeries, protruding or herniated disks, fractures, or degeneration that has not responded to other treatments. The procedure, first described in 1989, is known as the Racz procedure, lysis of adhesions, caudal adhesiolysis, epidural adhesiolysis, or epidural neurolysis. It involves introducing a catheter into the the sacral epidural region under fluoroscopy and injecting the area with a combination of local anesthetic, saline, a corticosteroid, and enzymes that break down scar tissue. The catheter may also be used to mechanically remove scar tissue in addition to using it as a means to inject solutions into the targeted area. In the original, or classic, Racz procedure, the catheter is inserted percutaneously and injections are performed over three days, with the catheter remaining in place until after the final injections. A modified procedure has been developed where the solutions are injected during a single one-day treatment. Other variations of the procedure include endoscopic introduction of the catheter and performing the procedure around other areas of the spine.

The Racz procedure was assigned a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code in 2000. This code was changed to apply only to the classic three-day procedure when a separate CPT code for the modified one-day procedure was introduced in 2003.

Racz catheter

In 1982, Racz designed the Racz catheter, a flexible, spring-wound catheter with a small fluoroscopic probe. It was originally developed to administer neurolytic blocks using phenol. The flexibility of the catheter enables it to more closely target the desired area, and is now commonly used to perform the Racz procedure and its variations.

Complex regional pain syndrome

Racz is recognized for his work in the treatment of complex regional pain syndromes (CRPS), a long-term disorder of the nervous system which is a challenging pain problem often misunderstood, and misdiagnosed. Chronic neurological syndrome is one form of CRPS which Racz has treated using a specific nerve block procedure he developed called a "long-lasting stellate ganglion block" (STGB). The procedure involves injecting a 3% phenol solution into the 7th cervical (C7) vertebra in the neck region using fluoroscopic guidance. A 2010 clinical investigation concluded "STGB using local anesthetic with an adjuvant ketamine is a safe and effective techinique" as it maintains circulation while enhancing the relief of pain and ischaemia in patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD). During an interview, Racz said "It is not a procedure that should be attempted by anybody who is not trained in the specific technique".

References

1. "Open Science Open Minds". InTech Open Access Publisher. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
2. ^ "Memories of escape from Hungary still burn bright". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. November 5, 2006. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
3. "Soviets Put Brutal End To Hungarian Revolution". This Day In History - November 4th. The History Channel. 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
4. "The Hungarian Uprising of 1956". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
5. Racz, Gabor B. (1989). Techniques of Neurolysis. Vol. Current Management of Pain, Vol. 4. Springer U.S. p. Acknowledgement. ISBN 978-1-4899-6723-7.
6. ^ "Gabor B. Racz, MD, ABIPP, FIPP, Grover Murray Professor" (PDF). Kenes. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
7. "Author Details for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome". Intech. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
8. "Development-New Facility to Expand Research and Treatment for Pain". Texas Tech Today. p. Vol 1, pg 4. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
9. John Davis (June 13, 2005). "TTUHSC Breaks New Ground with International Pain Center". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
10. Paula Brashear (March 31, 2008). "CURRICULUM VITAE Gabor B. Racz, M.D. Ch.B. DABPM, FIPP". TTUHSC International Pain Institute. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
11. Paula Brashear, Gabor B. Racz (December 12, 2013). "Curriculum Vitae - Gabor B. Racz" (PDF). Texas Tech University Health Science Center. p. 24. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
12. Interventional Pain Management: Image-Guided Procedures. Saunders. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4160-3844-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
13. Datta, Sukdeb (2009). "Chapter 87: Epidural Adhesiolysis". In Smith, Howard S. (ed.). Current Therapy in Pain. Elsevier. p. 630. ISBN 978-1-4160-4836-7.
14. Anderson, Susan R.; Racz, Gabor B.; Heavner, James (July 2000). "Evolution of Epidural Lysis of Adhesions" (PDF). Pain Physician Journal. 3 (3): 262–270. PMID 16906184.
15. Racz, Gabor B.; Holubec, Jerry T. (1989). "Lysis of Adhesions in the Epidural Space". In Racz, Gabor B. (ed.). Techniques of Neurolysis. Current Management of Pain. Vol. 4. Springer. pp. 57–72. doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-6721-3_6. ISBN 978-1-4899-6723-7. ISSN 0923-2354.
16. ^ Lenchig, Sergio; Lindley, David (2012). "Chapter 4.2 Caudal Adhesiolysis". In Gupta, Anita (ed.). Interventional Pain Medicine. Oxford University Press. pp. 629–639. ISBN 9780199740604.
17. ^ Ko, Timothy Y.; Hayek, Salim M. "Epidural Lysis of Adhesions: Percutaneous and Endoscopic Techniques". In Deer, Timothy R.; Leong, Michael S.; Buvanendran, Asokumar; Kim, Philip S.; Panchal, Sunil J. (eds.). Treatment of Chronic Pain by Interventional Approaches: The American Academy of Pain Medicine Textbook on Patient Management. Springer. pp. 195–206. ISBN 9781493918232.
18. Lee, Frank; Jamison, David E.; Hurley, Robert W.; Cohen, Stephen P. (January 2014). "Epidural Lysis of Adhesions". Korean Journal of Pain. 27 (1): 3–15. doi:10.3344/kjp.2014.27.1.3. PMID 24478895.
19. Bradford, Billie C. (February 2000). "HCFA announces 2000 Medicare anesthesia conversion factor increases and other changes" (PDF). American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. 68 (1): 59–65. PMID 10876453.
20. Manchikanti, Laxmaiah; Singh, Vijay (January 2003). "Interventional Pain Management: Evolving Issues For 2003" (PDF). Pain Physician Journal. 6 (1): 125–137. ISSN 1533-3159. PMID 16878168.
21. ^ Racz, Gabor B.; Sabonghy, Magdy; Gintautas, Jonas; Kline, William M. (August 6, 1982). "Intractable Pain Therapy Using a New Epidural Catheter". Journal of the American Medical Association. 248 (5): 579–581. doi:10.1001/jama.1982.03330050061033. PMID 7097904.
22. "Gabor B. Racz, MD". Spine Universe. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
23. Golovac, Stanley (2010). "Chapter 17: Spinal Cord Stimulation: Uses and Applications". In Mathis, John M.; Golovac, Stanley (eds.). Image-Guided Spine Interventions (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 379. ISBN 978-1-4419-0352-5.
24. Ranee M. Albazaz, Yew Toh Wong, Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam (March 2008). "Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Review". Annals of Vascular Surgery. 22 (2): 297–306. doi:10.1016/j.avsg.2007.10.006. PMID 18346583.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
25. Kalpana R. Kulkarni, Anita I. Kadam, Ismile J. Namazi (November 2010). "Efficacy of Stellate Ganglion Block with an Adjuvant Ketamine for Peripheral Vascular Disease of the Upper Limbs" (PDF). Indian Journal of Anesthesia. 54 (6): 546–551. doi:10.4103/0019-5049.72645. PMID 21224973.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
26. Ola T. Abdel Dayem, Mostafa M. Saeid, Olfat M. Ismail, Adel M. El Badrawy, and Nevert A. Abdel Ghaffar (2014). "Ultrasound Guided Stellate Ganglion Block in Postmastectomy Pain Syndrome: A Comparison of Ketamine versus Morphine as Adjuvant to Bupivacaine". Journal of Anesthesiology. 2014: 6. doi:10.1155/2014/792569.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
27. John Davis (November 10, 2005). "Procedure uses phenol, Botox to help restore normalcy to patients - Putting a stop to pain". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
28. Hord, Allen H.; Wang, Linda H. (2002). "Chapter 33: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome". In Tollison, C. David; Satterthwaite, John R.; Tollison, Joseph W. (eds.). Practical Pain Management. Lippencott, Williams, & Wilkins. pp. 513–514. ISBN 9780781731607.

Books

• Racz G., 1985: Capnography In The Operating Room: An Introductory Directory. by May, Wr., J. E. Heavner, D. Mcwhorter And G. Racz. Vi 58p. Raven Press Books, Ltd: New York, N.Y., Usa. Illus. Paper. Vi 58p
• Racz, Gabor B. 1989 Techniques of Neurolysis Gabor Racz (Ed.), ISBN 978-1-4899-6723-7 (Print) 978-1-4899-6721-3 (Online), Current Management of Pain, Vol. 4, Springer U.S.
• Racz, Gabor B., (Ed.), (2012) Epidural Lysis of Adhesions and Percutaneous Neuroplasty, Pain Management - Current Issues and Opinions, by Gabor B. Racz, Miles R. Day, James E. Heavner, Jeffrey P. Smith, Jared Scott, Carl E. Noe, Laslo Nagy and Hana Ilner. ISBN 978-953-307-813-7, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/39173.

• Biography
• Medicine

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• Living people
• American people of Hungarian descent
• Hungarian refugees
• Hungarian physicians
• American anesthesiologists
• American physicians
• American medical researchers
• Hungarian medical researchers
• People from Budapest
• 1937 births