Firas El-Khatib

Dr. Firas studied medicine for the MD, doctor of medicine degree, in Innbruck in Austria, a very renowned university in middle europe and well known for its neurology department which covers different disciplines such as epileptology, stroke and neurological intensive care, extrapyramidal disorders and others. He graduated there, where he went into medical scientific work and published his own study in epileptology on valproic acid therapy and its role in weight gain as for male and female patients. He then joined the university hospital of Münster in the state of Northrhein-Westphalia as a resident to specialize in neurology, which is one of the biggest and very differentiated clinics for neurology, not only in Northrhein-Westphalia, but also in whole Germany. The clinic contains at its time the biggest and most advanced stroke unit in middle europe as well as a neurologic intensive care unit, where critical care was given to neurologic patients. The clinic contains also many other subspecialties such as epileptology, headache, neuromuscular disease, sleep disorders, movement disorders, multiple sclerosis and related disorders, dementia and cognitive impairment. Afterwards, Dr. Firas joined Maria-Hilf clinics in Mönchengladbach near to Düsseldorf, the capital of the state Northrhein-Westphalia, one of the biggest neurologic clinics in the state. The clinic covers a very broad spectrum of neurology, similar to the one mentioned above. During his residency, Dr. Firas was trained in all spectrums of neurology and trained also one and half years of psychiatry training at a specialized hospital for psychiatry (St. Josef/St. Alexius) in Neuss, close to Düsseldorf. There he gained a wide experience in management of psychiatric disorders, especially schizoprenia and affective disorders. Although he continued his clinical work as a consultant for neurology covering the whole spectrum of neurology, Dr. Firas showed special interest in neurophysiology including Electromyography (EMG), Nerve conduction studies (NCS) and Electroencephalography (EEG), neuromuscular disease and epilepsy. Throughout his work after joining Klinikum Lüdenscheid, he was certified by the German Society for clinical neurophysiology in EEG and EMG, became then the director of the EMG and NCS lab, trained residents for neurology in all neurophysiologic diagnostic procedures including EEG and EMG. Dr. Firas was for long years consultant for neurology at Klinikum Lüdenscheid, where he covered for inpatients as well as outpatients the whole spectrum of neurology including headache, epilepsy and EEG, extrapyramidal movement disorders, vertigo and dizziness, inflammatory and infectious diseases of the central nervous system, neurodegenerative disease and dementia, and especially neuromuscular disorders including neurophysiology. During that time, Dr. Firas had his own practice in Essen in Northrhein-Westphalia, where he used to manage neurologic outpatients covering the whole spectrum of neurologic disease.