Pain
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Comparative Study
Anatomy of the cervical intervertebral foramina: vulnerable arteries and ischemic neurologic injuries after transforaminal epidural injections.
Cervical transforaminal epidural steroid injections are performed for the treatment of radicular pain. Multiple recent case reports have raised safety concerns regarding neurologic deficits such as anterior spinal artery syndrome and cerebellar injury after these injections. To investigate the potential causes of these injuries, an anatomic study was conducted. ⋯ Variable anastomoses between the vertebral and cervical arteries were found. Therefore, it is possible to introduce steroid particles into the vertebral circulation via the cervical arteries. Critical arteries are located in the posterior aspect of the intervertebral foramen and may be vulnerable to injection or injury during transforaminal epidural steroid injection.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Effects of intradermal foot and forearm capsaicin injections in normal and vulvodynia-afflicted women.
Cutaneous response to capsaicin has been used to assess central sensitization in pain research. This study compared the response to intradermal capsaicin in the forearm and foot of vulvar vestibulitis (vestibulodynia)-afflicted cases and controls. We hypothesized that cases will experience greater spontaneous pain, larger cutaneous areas of punctate hyperalgesia and dynamic allodynia, and greater vascular flow than controls. ⋯ VVS cases had higher resting pulse rates and lower resting systolic blood pressures than in controls. Conclusion. VVS patients show enhancement of post-capsaicin pain response extending far beyond the anatomic location of the primary complaint.
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In this systematic review effectiveness of analgesics for pain after tonsillectomy in children was evaluated and trial methodology of the included studies explored. Databases were searched for randomised, controlled studies on systemic paracetamol, NSAIDs and opioids. Eighty-four studies were evaluated for inclusion. ⋯ Because of highly variable methodology and lack of sensitivity only limited conclusions on clinical efficacy of analgesics investigated can be drawn. No analgesic in single prophylactic dose provided analgesia for day of operation. Further studies are needed to find the optimal analgesic(s) for pain after tonsillectomy in children.
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Comparative Study
A longitudinal study on the predictive validity of the fear-avoidance model in low back pain.
Recently, fear-avoidance models have been quite influential in understanding the transition from acute to chronic low back pain (LBP). Not only has pain-related fear been found to be associated with disability and increased pain severity, but also treatment focused at reducing pain-related fear has shown to successfully reduce disability levels. In spite of these developments, there is still a lack in well-designed prospective studies examining the role of pain-related fear in acute back pain. ⋯ A backward ordinal regression analysis showed previous LBP history and pain intensity to be the most important predictors of end of study GCPS. Of the fear-avoidance model variables, only negative affect added to this model. Our results do not really support the longitudinal validity of the fear-avoidance model, but they do feed the discussion on the role of pain-related fear in early stages of LBP.
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Comparative Study
Tactile allodynia in patients with postherpetic neuralgia: lack of change in skin blood flow upon dynamic stimulation.
Tactile allodynia is a common, troublesome feature of neuropathic pain. Allodynia has been proposed to involve abnormal Abeta-afferent coupling in the dorsal horn resulting in C-fibre activation and increased skin blood flow (SBF). Thus, changes in SBF could provide an objective measure of allodynia. ⋯ This was the case for all patients regardless of the degree of sensory impairment in the affected dermatome. In conclusion, in a representative population of PHN patients we found no evidence of changes in SBF in response to allodynic stimulation. Hence, SBF measurements are not suitable for assessing allodynia.