Acta anaesthesiologica Taiwanica : official journal of the Taiwan Society of Anesthesiologists
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Acta Anaesthesiol Taiwan · Jun 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialStarting dose of gabapentin for patients with post-herpetic neuralgia--a dose-response study.
Gabapentin has been shown to provide pain relief for post-herpetic neuralgia at dosage of 1200 to 2400 mg/day. However, the initial dosing strategy has not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to establish the initial dosing strategy in the treatment of the gabapentin-naive patients with post-herpetic neuralgia. ⋯ This study shows that elderly gabapentin-naive subjects no matter whether receiving 200, 400 or 600 mg/day of gabapentin benefited a moderate pain relief with minimal side effects at the first three days of treatment. Since starting with a minimal dose of 200 mg/day did not offer a better reduction of side effects, we suggest that 600 mg/day gabapentin could be a safe and effective starting dose for patients with post-herpetic neuralgia.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Taiwan · Jun 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialEvaluation of the effects of caudal or cephalic epidural catheterization on the characteristics of lumbar epidural anesthesia.
The delayed and incomplete sensory block of the sacral roots in epidural anesthesia often results from too huge the size of the first sacral nerve root. To overcome the problem, the enhancement of anesthetic effect on the sacral segment by injecting the local anesthetic toward the caudal direction has been reported. Thus, in this study, we compared the anesthetic effects of epidural anesthesia by catheterization toward caudal direction with that toward cephalic direction on the areas innervated by the sacral nerve roots. ⋯ Epidural injection of local anesthetic via catheter oriented caudad or cephalad did not change the characteristics of epidural anesthesia including onset time, duration, anesthetic level, and analgesic effect on the surgical areas innervated by the sacral roots.