Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · May 2024
ReviewEvaluating the balance of benefits and harms in chronic pain clinical trials: prioritizing individual participants over individual outcomes.
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) generally assess efficacy and safety separately, with the conclusion of whether a treatment is beneficial based solely on the efficacy endpoint. However, assessing and combining efficacy and safety domains, using a single composite outcome measure, can provide a more comprehensive assessment of the overall effect of a treatment. Furthermore, composite outcomes can incorporate information regarding the relationship between the individual outcomes. In fact, such outcomes have been suggested in the clinical trials literature for at least 15 years. ⋯ Composite outcomes of benefits and harms are underutilized in chronic pain RCTs. The advantages and challenges of using such outcomes are discussed.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · May 2024
Randomized Controlled TrialSingle-bolus injection of local anesthetic, with or without continuous infusion, for interscalene brachial plexus block in the setting of multimodal analgesia: a randomized controlled unblinded trial.
Previous trials favored a continuous interscalene brachial plexus block over a single injection for major shoulder surgery. However, these trials did not administer a multimodal analgesic regimen. This randomized, controlled unblinded trial tested the hypothesis that a continuous infusion of local anesthetic for an interscalene brachial plexus block still provides superior analgesia after major shoulder surgery when compared with a single injection in the setting of multimodal analgesia, inclusive of intravenous dexamethasone, magnesium, acetaminophen and ketorolac. ⋯ A continuous infusion of local anesthetic for an interscalene brachial plexus block does not provide superior analgesia after major shoulder surgery when compared with a single injection in the setting of multimodal analgesia, inclusive of intravenous dexamethasone, magnesium, acetaminophen and ketorolac. The findings of this study are limited by performance and detection biases.