Pain
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Case Reports
Patterns of spread in complex regional pain syndrome, type I (reflex sympathetic dystrophy).
There are reports that complex regional pain syndrome, type I (reflex sympathetic dystrophy; CRPS-I/RSD) can spread from the initial site of presentation, but there are no detailed descriptions of the pattern(s) of such spread. We describe a retrospective analysis of 27 CRPS-I/RSD patients who experienced a significant spread of pain. Three patterns of spread were identified. 'Contiguous spread (CS)' was noted in all 27 cases and was characterized by a gradual and significant enlargement of the area affected initially. 'Independent spread (IS)' was noted in 19 patients (70%) and was characterized by the appearance of CRPS-I in a location that was distant and non-contiguous with the initial site (e.g. ⋯ In some it may be due to a local spread of pathology (CS); in others it may be a consequence of a generalized susceptibility (IS). In the MS case, spread may be due to abnormal neural functioning spreading via commissural pathways. Alternatively, we discuss the possibility that all three kinds of spread may be due to aberrant CNS regulation of neurogenic inflammation.
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Our understanding of the natural history of chronic pain in the community is limited. This is partly due to the lack of a validated measure of chronic pain severity known to be responsive to change over time. The Chronic Pain Grade questionnaire has been shown to be valid and reliable for use in a general population as a self-completion questionnaire. ⋯ The majority of SF-36 scores changed in the hypothesized directions. Changes in CPG scores were significantly correlated with changes in most of the SF-36 domains. We concluded that the CPG is a useful and valid objective instrument for measuring change in severity of chronic pain over time and could be used in longitudinal studies of chronic pain severity.
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The inability of opioids to control pain over time may be influenced by different factors such as drug tolerance, hyperalgesia due to repeated morphine administration or progression of the original disease. In addition, chronic pain may alter morphine tolerance development. This study examined whether chronic morphine exposure differently affects mechanical and thermal stimulus evoked pain-related behaviour in non-operated, nerve-injured and sham-operated rats. ⋯ Following morphine pretreatment, acute i.v. morphine on day 16 remained effective against both mechanical and thermal stimuli in non-operated rats, but was strongly reduced in nerve-injured rats. Sham-operated rats displayed a tendency towards a reduced effect of i.v. morphine after morphine pretreatment in the mechanical but not in the thermal test. The results suggest that mechanical afferent systems may be more sensitive to hyperalgesia associated with repetitive morphine injections than thermal systems and that nerve injury facilitates the development of tolerance to morphine analgesia.