Pain
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Pulsed radiofrequency adjacent to the cervical dorsal root ganglion in chronic cervical radicular pain: a double blind sham controlled randomized clinical trial.
Cervical radicular pain affects approximately 1 on 1000 adults per year. Although many treatment modalities are described in the literature, the available evidence for efficacy is not sufficient to allow definitive conclusions on the optimal therapy to be made. The effect of pulsed radiofrequency treatment for this type of patients was evaluated in a prospective audit that showed satisfactory pain relief for a mean period of 9.2 months, justifying a randomized sham controlled trial. ⋯ The need for pain medication was significantly reduced in the pulsed radiofrequency group after six months. No complications were observed during the study period. These study results are in agreement with the findings of our previous clinical audit that pulsed radiofrequency treatment of the cervical dorsal root ganglion may provide pain relief for a limited number of carefully selected patients with chronic cervical radicular pain as assessed by clinical and neurological examination.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Analgesic action of gabapentin on chronic pain in the masticatory muscles: a randomized controlled trial.
Chronic masticatory myalgia (CMM) can be defined as constant pain in the masticatory muscles for more than 6 months and is influenced by the central nervous system. The antiepileptic agent gabapentin acts centrally and is used for managing different types of chronic pain conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the analgesic action of gabapentin on CMM. ⋯ Thirty-six patients completed the study. Gabapentin showed to be clinically and statistically superior to placebo in reducing pain reported by patients (gabapentin=51.04%; placebo=24.30%; P=0.037), masticatory muscle hyperalgesia (gabapentin=67.03%; placebo=14.37%; P=0.001) and impact of CMM on daily functioning (gabapentin=57.70%; placebo=16.92%; P=0.022). It can be concluded from this study that gabapentin is effective for the management of CMM.