• Pain physician · Mar 2015

    Case Reports

    Spontaneous muscle contraction with extreme pain after thoracotomy treated by pulsed radiofrequency.

    • Yuecheng Yang, Lihua Dai, and Ma Ke.
    • Pain Management Centre, Department of Anesthesiology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
    • Pain Physician. 2015 Mar 1;18(2):E245-9.

    BackgroundChronic post thoracotomy pain (CPTP) was a common complication after thoracotomy, while spontaneous muscle contraction (SMC) was very rare. Neuropathic pain components appeared in some CPTP patients. The patients with neuropathic pain (NPP) often suffered from more severe pain.ObjectiveWe presented a case of a 57 year- old Chinese male, suffering from SMC with extreme chronic pain after thoracotomy for 2 years. The patient was treated by pulsed radiofrequency (PRF). Then we reviewed the related progresses including recent view on NPP in CPTP, the possible mechanism of SMC, treatments for CTPT, and peripheral nerve treatments in NPP.Study DesignCase report and review of the literature.MethodsThe patient was diagnosed as CPTP with SMC. After the experimental intercostal nerve block provided short-term analgesia, we performed PRF through the angulus costae on intercostal nerves under x-ray guidance. We performed PRF for 3 times in all, at an interval of 2 weeks. Then we had followed up the pain intensity, frequency and amplitude of SMC of this patient during the 2 years.ResultsThe pain intensity decreased from 8 to 2 on the visual analogue scale (VAS). The frequency of muscle contraction was decreased by 90%, and the amplitude was decreased by 60%. The treatment also improved the patient's sleep quality. These improvements were stable in 2 years' follow-up. In our review of the literature, the SMC may be based on the pain-spasm-pain model.LimitationSingle case report.ConclusionPulsed radiofrequency provided good efficacy in CPTP with SMC in this case.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.