In Memoriam: Interventional Pain Pioneer and IPSIS Founding Member Dr. Charles Aprill

The International Pain and Spine Intervention Society celebrates the life of pioneering interventional pain physician, and one of IPSIS’s founding members, Dr. Charles Aprill who passed away on April 27, 2021.

A Louisiana native, Dr. Aprill graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1963 and Louisiana State University Medical School in 1967. He completed his internship at Charity Hospital of Louisiana in 1968, and a radiology residency at the Ochsner Medical Foundation in 1971. He then served in the United States Navy Reserve as a staff radiologist at the Pensacola, Florida Naval Hospital. In 1973, Dr. Aprill went into private practice in radiation oncology and oncologic interventional diagnostic and therapeutic special procedures in Houston, Texas, and practiced general radiology with emphasis on interventional special procedures for the next decade. In 1986, he opened a solo practice limited to diagnosis and conservative treatment of adult spine disorders.

Dr. Aprill was intrigued by exploring the potential for how his foundational studies could inform the emerging spinal injection evidence base to lead to a world with less debilitating pain, fewer unnecessary surgeries, and rarer opioid prescriptions. In 1988, Dr. Aprill brought his radiologic knowledge to bear in a multi-specialty study group with anatomy and pain professor Nikolai Bogduk, MD, PhD; anesthesiologists Richard Derby, MD and Glen Holliday, DO; surgeon Claire Tibiletti, MD; and rheumatologist David Fletcher, MD. Over the next three years, this self-described Needle Jockey Club would meet at various medical meetings and conceived a new medical society: ISIS (the International Spinal Injection Society), which began holding cadaveric workshops and an annual scientific meeting in 1992. As the group grew to embrace other evidence-based minimally invasive interventional treatments beyond injections, the association ultimately came to be known as the Spine Intervention Society.

Dr. Aprill established Magnolia Clinic in 1993, a solo private interventional pain practice where he remained until Hurricane Katrina closed the doors in 2005. He established Interventional Spine Specialists in Kenner, Louisiana in January 2006 and went on to become a Clinical Professor of Radiology and Physical Medicine / Rehabilitation at the Louisiana State University Health Science Center.

His clinical work in private practice generated about a dozen papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Aprill has authored or co-authored about two-dozen more papers and about a dozen chapters on spine related issues. He has presented globally on interventional pain, and over the years he received: the AMA Physician Recognition Award, the Cardon Award for Excellence in a Published Research Article, the Cervical Spine Research Society Award for Outstanding Spinal Research, the McKenzie Institute International Extension Award, and the students of Tulane University Medical School’s Owl Club Award for Clinical Instruction.

Dr. Aprill retired from clinical practice in 2015, yet continued to review, research, instruct, and was a gregarious presence at IPSIS events right up until COVID-19 paused in-person education in 2020.

IPSIS mourns the loss of one of its pillars. His spirit lives on in the many members and leaders, both past and present, who were mentored and trained by Dr. Aprill. We are committed to continuing his legacy through our dedication to excellence in education. To acknowledge his tremendous contributions and achievements, in 2014 IPSIS created the “Charles N. Aprill Lifetime Achievement Award." IPSIS granted the inaugural award to its namesake and will continue to honor him into the future with every award recipient.

IPSIS members are invited to share their memories in a new IPSIS online community dedicated to Dr. Aprill.

Click here for information on services for Dr. Aprill.