Prof. Davidson is the Director of the pain relief unit in Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. He completed his anesthesiology residency in Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center and earned higher education in pain practice and research in the University of Texas-Houston School of Medicine (2 years Herman hospital) and in the University of Miami School of Medicine (1 year Jackson Memorial). Prof. Davidson was a board member of the Israeli Pain Association and is the current president of IASP.  He is involved in educating the medical community and public regarding pain management.

Research Interest

1. Local anesthetics and Liposomal long acting local anesthetics.
2. Genetic Polymorphism of the mu opioid receptor.
3. Effect of Neuroaxial Injections on MR Imaging. Studies comparing spinal MRI prior vs MRI following epidural injections in patients treated for low back pain or after epidural infusions.
4. Use of Medical Cannabis- preclinical and clinical research.
5. Patient Safety

Recent Publications:

Davidson EM, Sklar EM, Bhatia RG, Garcia L, Hulen R, Ginosar Y, Arheart K and Birnbach DPI. (2008) Evaluation of MR Imaging Following Neuraxial Steroid Injection. A Prospective Study to Determine Whether Epidural Injection Produces Pathologic MRI Findings. Reg Anesth Pain Med 33(4):326-31

Haroutiunian, S , Shoval R, Rosen G, Davidson EM. (2008) Open-label, add-on study of tetrahydrocannabinol for chronic non-malignant pain. J Pain Palliative Care Pharmocother 22(3):213-17.

Ginosar Y, Nadjari M, Hoffman M, Firman N, Davidson EM, Rosen L, Weissman C, and Elchalal U and the ACET study group. (2009).Antepartum continuous epidural ropivacaine therapy reduces uterine artery vascular resistance in preeclampsia: a randomised, dose-ranging, placebo-controlled study. Br J Anesth BJA 102(3): 369-78.

Ginosar Y, Weiniger CF, Kurz V, Babchenko A, Nitzan M and Davidson EM. (2009) Sympathectomy-mediated vasodilatation: a randomized concentration ranging study of epidural bupivacaine. Can J Anesth 56(3): 213-21. 

Haroutiunian S, Lecht S, Zur AA, Hoffman A, Davidson EM. (2009) The challenge of pain management in patients with myasthenia gravis. J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother. 23(3):242-60.

Ginosar Y, Davidson EM, Meroz Y, Blotnick S, Shacham M, Caraco Y. (2009) Mu-opioid receptor (A118G) single-nucleotide polymorphism affects alfentanil requirements for extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy: a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic study. Br J Anaesth. 103(3):420-7. 

Ginosar Y, Weiniger CF, Meroz Y, Kurz V, Bdolah-Abram T, Babchenko A, Nitzan M, Davidson EM. Pulse oximeter perfusion index as an early indicator of sympathectomy after epidural anesthesia. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2009 53(8):1018-26. 

Davidson EM, Barenholz Y, Cohen R, Haroutiunian S, Kagan L, Ginosar Y.(2010) High-dose bupivacaine remotely loaded into multivesicular liposomes demonstrates slow drug release without systemic toxic plasma concentrations after subcutaneous administration in humans. Anesth Analg. 110(4):1018-23. 

Davidson EM, Sklar E, Bahatia R, Garcia LC, Ginosar Y, Arheart K and Birnbach D. (2010) MRI findings following uneventful continuous infusion neuraxial analgesia. A Prospective Study to Determine Whether Epidural Infusion Produces Pathologic MRI Findings. Anesth Analg 110(1):233-7. 

Ginosar YPI, Smith YC, Ben-Hur TC, Lovett JMC, Clements TC, Ginosar YDC, Davidson EPI. (2012) A novel pulsatile CSF model to assess pressure manometry and fluid sampling through spinal needles of different gauge: support for the use of a 22G spinal needle with a tapered 27G pencil-point tip. Br J Anesth BJA 108(2):308-15 

Zaslansky RPI, Chapman CRC, Rothaug JC, Backstrom RC, Brill SC, Davidson EC, Elessi KC, Fletcher DC, Fodor LC, Karanja EC, Konrad CC, Kopf AC, Leykin YC, Lipman AC, Puig MC, Rawal NC, Schug SC, Ullrich KC, Volk T, Meissner WPI. (2012) Feasibility of international data collection and feedback on postoperative pain data: Proof of concept. Eur J Pain 16(3):430-8 

Ginosar YPI, Birnbach DJC, Shirov TTC, Arheart KC, Caraco YC, Davidson EMPI. (2013) Duration of analgesia and pruritus following intrathecal fentanyl for labour analgesia: no significant effect of A118G ?-opioid receptor polymorphism, but a marked effect of ethnically distinct hospital populations. Br J Anaesth 111(3):433-44

Haroutiunian SPI, Kagan LC, Yifrach-Damari IC, Davidson EC, Ratz YC, Hoffman API. (2014) Enhanced antinociceptive efficacy of epidural compared with i.v. methadone in a rat model of thermal nociception. Br J Anaesth 112:150-8 

Davidson EPI, Haroutiunian SC, Kagan LC, Naveh MC, Cooper SC, Aharon AC, Ginosar YPI (2016) Subcutaneous administration of proliposomal 4% ropivacaine in healthy human volunteers: pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data. Anesth Analg 

Davidson EPI, Haroutiunian SC, Kagan LC, Naveh MC, Cooper SC, Aharon AC, Ginosar YPI. (2016) Subcutaneous administration of proliposomal ropivacaine: preclinical studies of toxicity, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, and wound healing. Anesth Analg 

Haroutiunian SPI, Ratz YC, Ginosar YC, Karina FurmanovC, Saifi FC, Meidan RC, Davidson EPI. (2016) The Effect of Medicinal Cannabis on Pain and Quality of Life Outcomes in Chronic Pain: a Prospective Open-Label Study. Clinical Journal of Pain 

Prof. Devor is the Alpert Professor of Pain Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). He was born in Toronto, Canada in 1949. His AB and PhD degrees were from Princeton University (1970) and MIT (1975). He was a postdoctoral fellow with the pain research pioneer Prof. P.D. Wall at University College London and later at HUJI. He joined the HUJI faculty as Research Associate in 1977 and rose to the rank of Professor in 1988. He served as Department Chairman (3 terms) and in a number of other University, national and international roles. He has contributed considerably to the understanding of the physiological basis of neuropathic pain and more recently to mechanisms involved in loss of consciousness and pain-free surgery. He is author of ~300 publications (H index = 69).

Highlights

• Among the first research on collateral sprouting in the skin following nerve injury (rats & humans).
• Established ectopic discharge in nerve end neuromas as a fundamental factor in neuropathic pain.
• Discovery of "sympathetic-sensory coupling" as a factor in neuropathic pain, and its association with sympathetic sprouting in the nerve end and the dorsal root ganglion (DRG).
• Establishment of the first animal model of neuropathic pain, the "neuroma model", still widely used.
• First demonstration of ephaptic crosstalk at nerve injury sites, previously only a medical speculation.
• Discovery of neuroplastic reorganization of somatosensory maps in the spinal dorsal horn and cortex following peripheral nerve injury. This work was subsequently extended to primates and humans.
• Discovered role of Na+ channel accumulation in axons to hyperexcitability and neuropathic pain.
• Demonstrated that corticosteroids and anticonvulsants suppress ectopia and hence neuropathic pain.
• Discovered neuropathic hyperexcitability in DRG neurons & role of sub-threshold oscillations in ectopia.
• Discovery of non-ephaptic/non-synaptic crosstalk among injured afferent axons and DRG somata.
• Developed the "Ignition Hypothesis" of paroxysmal pain in Trigeminal Neuralgia.
• Novel mechanism and treatment for osteoarthritic pain based intrinsic innervation & root canal analogy
• Discovery that susceptibility to neuropathic pain is heritable; among the founders of Pain Genetics.
• Identification of Cacng2 (stargazin) as a susceptibility gene for neuropathic pain (animals and man).
• First use of correlational analysis for defining fundamental pain "types", and gene expression changes.
• Use of selection-line strains to discover pain-relevant genes.
• Discovered the brainstem MPTA, a key node in the network sub-serving anesthetic state transitions.

Sample of recent research publications:

1. Lu J, Sherman D, Devor M, Saper CB. A putative flip-flop switch for control of REM sleep. Nature. 441 (2006) 589-594. Times Cited: 665 [This paper lays out the flip-flop concept of sleep regulation]1.
2. Devor, M. Sodium channels and mechanisms of neuropathic pain. Journal of Pain, S1 (2006) S3-S12 Times Cited: 253 [This paper summarises in a digestible form my research on the subject, beginning in 1989, a time a relationship between Na+ channels and neuropathic pain was not yet on the map]2.
3. Devor, M. Pathophysiology of Nerve Injury in: Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 3rd series, vol. 81, Pain. F. Cervero and T.S. Jensen eds. Elsevier pp. 261-276 (2006). [A famous series in Clinical Neurology]
4. Persson A-K, Gebauer M, Jordan S, Metz-Weidmann C, Schulte AM, Schneider H-C, Thun J, Xu X-J, Wiesenfeld-Hallin Z, Darvasi A, Fried K, Devor M. Correlational analysis for identifying genes whose regulation contributes to chronic neuropathic pain. Molecular Pain, 5 (2009) 7. Times Cited: 43 [Correlational analysis, a novel approach to genetic analysis that Mogil and I first applied to pain in 1999, is applied here to whole-genome data]
5. Abulafia R., Zalkind V, Devor M. Cerebral activity during the anesthesia-like state induced by mesopontine microinjection of pentobarbital. J. Neuroscience, 29 (2009) 7053-64. Times Cited: 19 [This paper maps changes in brain activity upon MPTA microinjection using c-Fos]
6. Devor, M. Ectopic discharge in A? afferents as a source of neuropathic pain. Experimental brain research 196 (2009)115-128. Times Cited:196 [The paper opposes the belief that pain is a matter of C-fibers alone] 
7. Kovalsky Y, Amir R, Devor M. Subthreshold oscillations facilitate neuropathic spike discharge by overcoming membrane accommodation. Experimental Neurology 210 (2008) 194-206.. Times Cited: 18 [Subthreshold oscillations in DRGs, that we discovered in 2002, are fundamental to ectopic discharge. This paper shows why] 
8. Fried K, Sessle BJ, Devor M. The paradox of pain from tooth pulp: low-threshold "algoneurons"? Pain. 2011 Dec;152:2685-9.
9. Devor, M., Neuropathic pain: pathophysiological response of nerves to injury. Chapter 61. In: S.L. McMahon, M. Koltzenburg, I. Tracey and D.C. Turk (Eds.), Wall and Melzack's Textbook of Pain, 6th edition, Churchill Livingstone, London, 2013, pp 861-888. [Leading textbook in the pain field to which I have contributed since the 1st edition, published 1984]
10. Vaso A, Adahan HM, Gjika A, Zahaj S, Zhurda T, Vyshka G, Devor M. Peripheral nervous system origin of phantom limb pain. Pain 155 (2014) 1384-91. Times Cited: 36 [Data show that phantom limb pain (in humans) is not due to dysfunctional cortical plasticity, but ectopic discharge originating in DRGs.] 
11. Sukhotinsky I, Minert A, Soja P, Devor M. Mesopontine switch for the induction of general anesthesia by dedicated neural pathways. Anesth Analg. (2016) [Reviews research on the MPTA since my group discovered it in 2001]

Dr. Haviv is a dentist, an Oral medicine specialist and a PhD in Biochemistry and genetics. He serves as the head of the Orofacial Pain Clinic in the Oral Medicine department in Hadassah and as a lecturer at the Hebrew University. He is a member of the Israeli society of Oral Medicine, Scientific board of the Orofacial Pain and Dental Sleep Dentistry of the Oral Medicine society and a member of the Board of examiners in Oral Medicine Specialty in Israel. Graduate of Hebrew University.

Sample of recent research publications:

Almoznino G, Benoliel R, Sharav Y, Haviv Y. Sleep disorders and chronic craniofacial pain: Characteristics and management possibilities. Sleep Med Rev. 2016 May 11. pii: S1087-0792(16)30011-9. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2016.04.005. [Epub ahead of print] Review.

Haviv Y, Zini A, Etzioni Y, Klitinich V, Dobriyan A, Sharav Y, Benoliel R, Almoznino G. The impact of chronic orofacial pain on daily life: the vulnerable patient and disruptive pain. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2017 Jan;123(1):58-66.

Haviv Y, Khan J, Zini A, Almoznino G, Sharav Y, Benoliel R. Trigeminal neuralgia (part I): Revisiting the clinical phenotype.Cephalalgia. 2016 Jul;36(8):730-46.

Benoliel R, Zini A, Khan J, Almoznino G, Sharav Y, Haviv Y. Trigeminal neuralgia (part II): Factors affecting early pharmacotherapeutic outcome.Cephalalgia. 2016 Jul;36(8):747-59.

Haviv Y, Zini A, Almoznino G, Keshet N, Sharav Y, Aframian DJ. Assessment of interfering factors in non-adherence to oral appliance therapy in severe sleep apnea. Oral Dis. 2017 Jan 5. doi: 10.1111/odi.12633. [Epub ahead of print].

Haviv Y, Bachar G, Aframian DJ, Almoznino G, Michaeli E, Benoliel R. A 2-year mean follow-up of oral appliance therapy for severe obstructive sleep apnea: a cohort study. Oral Dis. 2015 Apr;21(3):386-92.

Almoznino G, Haviv Y, Sharav Y, Benoliel R.2016. An update of management of insomnia in patients with chronic orofacial pain. Oral Dis. Accepted for publication. Critical Review.

Haviv Y , Avrahami D, Ovadia H, Ben-Hur, Gabizon R, Sharon RI. Induced neuroprotection independently from PrPSc accumulation in a mouse model for prion disease treated with simvastatin. Arch Neurol. 2008; 65(6): 762-75 .

Haviv Y, Zadik Y, Sharav Y , Benoliel R. Painful traumatic trigeminal neuropathy: an open study on the pharmacotherapeutic response to stepped treatment. J Oral Facial Pain Headache 2014; 28(1):52-60.

Haviv Y PI, Benoliel R C, Bachar G C, Michaeli E PI. On the edge between medicine and dentistry: Review of the dentist's role in the diagnosis and treatment of snoring and sleep apnea.  Quintessence Int. 2014;45 (4):345-53.

 Haviv YPI , Ratman Ac,  Aframian DJc,  Sharav Yc.  Benoliel, Rc. Myofascial Pain: An Open Study on the Pharmacotherapeutic Response to stepped Treatment with Tricyclic Antidepress ants and Gabapentin.  J Oral Facial Pain Headache. 2015;29(2).

"Neurovascular Orofacial Pain", Clinical Chapter, Sharav, Y, Haviv, Y, Almoznino-Kain G, Benoliel, R., in Textbook "Contemporary Oral Medicine" edited by Professor Camile S. Farah, Prof. Ramesh Balasubramaniam, Professor Michael J. McCullough, Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland.

Prof. Tal is a laboratory head and the president of The Israel Pain Association. His higher education was at Hebrew University (DMD) and UCLA (MS). He had worked for 2 years with Gary Bennett at NIH and recently withRon Dubner and Ken Ren In Baltimore Maryland. His laboratory has published in the pain field, with work of a notably integrative nature involving neurophysiology, psychophysiology and animal behavior.

Research Interest

1. Mechanisms of neuropathic pain after nerve injury. Mechanisms whereby injury evokes sensory dysfunction and chronic pain. Pathophysiology of injured nerve, particularly, abnormal discharge originates at the site of nerve injury or in the DRG in experimental animal models for neuropathy in1. the rat.
2. Relationship between sensory and motor modalities in the oro-facial area. Effects and mechanisms of different drugs and hypnosis on pain and reflexes in the oro-facial area.

Sample of recent research publications:

• The transition from naive to primed nociceptive state: A novel wind-up protocol in mice. Ziv NY, Tal M, Shavit Y. Exp Neurol. 2015 Oct 9;275P3:133-142.
• Adi Nitzan-Luques, Marshall Devor and Michael Tal. (2013) Dynamic genotype-selective "phenotypic switching" of CGRP expression contributes to differential neuropathic pain phenotype. Exp. Neurol. 25;250C:194-204.
• Matthias Ringkamp, Michael Tal, Timothy V. Hartke, Matthew Wooten, Alvin McKelvy, Brian P Turnquist, Yun Guan, Richard A. Meyer, Srinivasa N. Raja. (2012) Local loperamide injection reduces mechanosensitivity of rat cutaneous, nociceptive C- fibers. PLoS ONE, 7(7):e42105.
• Chronic blockade of interleukin-1 (IL-1) prevents and attenuates neuropathic pain behavior and spontaneous ectopic neuronal activity following nerve injury. 
  Gabay E, Wolf G, Shavit Y, Yirmiya R, Tal M.
  Eur J Pain. 2011 Mar;15(3):242-8.
• Genotype-selective phenotypic switch in primary afferent neurons contributes to neuropathic pain. 
  Nitzan-Luques A, Devor M, Tal M.
  Pain. 2011 Oct;152(10):2413-26.
• Eran Gabay, Gilly Wolf, Yehuda Shavit, Raz Yirmiya, Michael Tal. (2010) Chronic Blockade of Interleukin-1 (IL-1) Prevents and Attenuates Neuropathic Pain Behavior and Spontaneous Ectopic Neuronal Activity Following Nerve Injury. European J of Pain, August 26.
• Jonathan Nissenbaum, Marshall Devor, Ze'ev Seltzer, Mathias Gebauer, Martin Michaelis, Michael Tal,  Ruslan Dorfman, Merav Abitbul-Yarkoni, Yan Lu, Sonia delCanho, Anne Minert, Kaj Fried, Anna-Karin Persson, Hagai Shpigler1, Benjamin Yakir, Anne Pisante, Ariel Darvasi (2010). Susceptibility to chronic pain following nerve injury is genetically controlled by CACNG2. Genome Research. Sep;20(9):1180-90.
• What causes low back pain ? Marshall Devor and Michael Tal Editorial. (2009) Pain 142,(1),11-12.
• Eli Eliav, Rafael Benoliel, Uri Herzberg, Mythili Kalladka and Michael Tal (2009) The Role of IL-6 and 
  IL-1beta in Painful Perineural Inflammatory Neuritis.  Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 23 (2009) 474-484.
• Dan Kaufmann, Boris Yagen, Anne Minert, Michael Tal, Marshall Devor and Meir Bialer  (2008). Evaluation of the Enantioselective Antiallodynic and Pharmacokinetic Profile of Propylisopropylacetamide, a Chiral Isomer of Valproic Acid Amide. Neuropharmacology, Mar;54(4):699-707.
• Kleibeuker, W, Gabay, E., Kavelaars, A., Zijlstra, J., Wolf, G., Ziv, N., Yirmiya, R.,Shavit, Y., 
  Tal, M., and Heijnen, C. J.: (2007). IL-1? signaling is required for mechanical allodynia induced by nerve injury and for   the ensuing reduction in spinal cord neuronal GRK2. Brain Behav. Immun. 22(2):200-8.
• Tal M, Kim J, Back SK, Na HS, Devor M (2006) Onset of ectopic fring in the Chung model of neuropathic pain coincides with the onset of tactile allodynia. In: Flor H, Kalso E, Dostrovsky JO 
  (eds), Proceedings of the 11th world congress on pain, IASP Press, Seattle, pp 119-130
• Wolf, G., Gabay, E., Tal, M., Yirmiya, R., Shavit, Y. (2006) Impairment of Interleukin-1 (IL-1) Signaling Attenuates Neuropathic Pain and Spontaneous Ectopic Neuronal Activity Following Nerve Injury. Pain 120:315-324