To accommodate his growing patient load, Michael C. Cronen, DO, founder of The Pain Institute, has added internationally-renowned physician Larry L. Zhou, MD to his practice.

"Dr. Zhou brings a tremendous background to The Pain Institute," said Dr. Cronen. "We are enthusiastic about the high levels of training and expertise he has with pain management, specifically in utilizing the newest techniques available."

Dr. Cronen noted that Dr. Zhou is experienced in using a wide range of techniques for pain relief including SpineCATH IDET, radio frequency, fluoroscopic guided blocks, spinal cord stimulators, and intrathecal morphine pumps. SpineCATH IDET is a non-surgical, therapeutic procedure developed specifically for patients with back pain related to abnormalities of the disc. Radio Frequency is a method that heats a small volume of nerve tissue to interrupt pain signals from a specific area.

Dr. Zhou is Board Certified in Anesthesiology and has completed a clinical fellowship in pain management at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas, as well as a residency in anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He has served as a research assistant professor in the Department of Immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and as an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

He also completed a research fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard. Dr. Zhou received his medical degree from Hunan Medical College in China and a master's degree in endocrinology from the Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College in Beijing.

In addition, Dr. Zhou has published numerous reports and abstracts in his work with leukocytes, white cell differentiation antigens and lymphocyte development.