Anesthesia and analgesia
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2024
ReviewAnesthesiologists and Community Engagement: A Scoping Review of the Literature.
Millions of individuals require anesthesia services each year. Although anesthesia-associated mortality rates have declined, anesthetic-related morbidity remains high, particularly among vulnerable populations. Disparities in perioperative screening, optimization, surveillance, and follow-up contribute to worse outcomes in these populations. ⋯ Results indicate that most initiatives representing deeper levels of community engagement, at the collaborate or empower level, occur internationally. Efforts that occur in the United States tend to emphasize engagement of individual patients rather than communities. There is a need to pursue deeper, more meaningful community-engaged efforts within the field of anesthesiology at a local and national level.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Apr 2024
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Augmented Postsurgical Pain Is Driven by Central Serotonergic Pain-Facilitatory Signaling.
Individuals recovering from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) have increased rates of acute and chronic pain. However, the mechanism through which mTBI triggers heightened pain responses and the link between mTBI and postsurgical pain remain elusive. Recent data suggest that dysregulated serotonergic pain-modulating circuits could be involved. We hypothesized that mTBI triggers dysfunction in descending serotonergic pain modulation, which exacerbates acute pain and delays pain-related recovery after surgery. ⋯ Collectively, our results show that descending serotoninergic pain-facilitating signaling is responsible for nociceptive sensitization after mTBI and that central endogenous opioid tone opposes serotonin's effects. Understanding brain injury-related changes in endogenous pain modulation may lead to improved pain control for those with TBI undergoing surgery.