Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Oct 2024
Hidden risk of gadolinium-based contrast agents during interventional pain medicine procedures: a retrospective chart review.
Epidural steroid injections and epidural blood patches commonly involve the injection of a small amount of radiocontrast media under fluoroscopy to properly identify the target tissue or anatomic space and prevent off-target or intravascular delivery of therapeutic or diagnostic drugs. Iodinated low osmolar non-ionic contrast media is the standard preparation used as it is considered safe and cost-effective, but gadolinium-based preparations have been used as an alternative for patients with an 'iodine'-related or radiocontrast media allergy label to prevent hypersensitivity reactions. The risk of neurotoxic events when gadolinium is inadvertently injected into the intrathecal space has been reported in recent years, raising concerns when gadolinium-based contrast media is used in lieu of iodinated low osmolar non-ionic contrast media. ⋯ Almost all patients in our cohort had an allergy label on their chart that guided the provider to switch to gadolinium-based contrast media, but most were incomplete, ill-defined, or related to allergy to iodine but not iodinated contrast media. Such practice is not recommended based on current guidelines. The current study raises concern regarding the use of gadolinium-based contrast media in axial spine procedures, with the risk of potential severe adverse events, without evidence-based need for avoiding iodinated contrast media.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Oct 2024
ReviewAssociation between perioperative neuraxial local anesthetic neurotoxicity and arachnoiditis: a narrative review of published reports.
Arachnoiditis is a rare but devastating disorder caused by various insults, one of which is purported to be local anesthetic neurotoxicity following neuraxial blockade. However, the relationship between local anesthetics administered into the neuraxis and the development of arachnoiditis has not been clearly elucidated. ⋯ The existing literature attributing arachnoiditis to local anesthetic neurotoxicity is largely outdated, incomplete, and/or confounded by other potential causes, and thus insufficient to characterize the features and strength of any association.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Oct 2024
Intrathecal cervical analgesia for cancer pain: a 12-year follow-up study in a comprehensive cancer center.
Intrathecal analgesia plays a key role for patients suffering refractory cancer pain. Nevertheless, intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS), requiring a cervical catheter tip implantation, have been poorly described in medical literature. ⋯ Results suggest that long-term intrathecal treatment using a multidrug regimen for cancer-related pain through cervical intrathecal catheters was suitable and safe in our study population. We demonstrated a clinically and statistically significant pain reduction in patients using mainly a percutaneous lumbar approach.