Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Feb 2021
Randomized Controlled TrialTranscutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) for migraine: an fMRI study.
Dysfunction of the thalamocortical connectivity network is thought to underlie the pathophysiology of the migraine. This current study aimed to explore the thalamocortical connectivity changes during 4 weeks of continuous transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) treatment on migraine patients. ⋯ Our findings suggest that taVNS can relieve the symptoms of headache as well as modulate the thalamocortical circuits in migraine patients. The results provide insights into the neural mechanism of taVNS and reveal potential therapeutic targets for migraine patients.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Feb 2021
Perioperative cannabis use: a longitudinal study of associated clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes.
Despite increases in cannabis use generally and for pain management, data regarding cannabis use in patients undergoing surgery are lacking. This study examined the prevalence of cannabis use among patients undergoing elective surgery and explored differences in clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes between cannabis users and non-cannabis users. ⋯ Cannabis use is relatively low in this surgical population, yet cannabis users have higher clinical pain, poorer scores on quality of life indicators, and higher opioid use before and after surgery. Cannabis users reported similar surgical outcomes, suggesting that cannabis use did not impede recovery.