Eur Rev Med Pharmaco
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Eur Rev Med Pharmaco · Dec 2013
Review Case ReportsMassive pulmonary air embolism during the implantation of pacemaker, case reports and literature analysis.
Pacemaker implantation has developed into a mature technology, meanwhile, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), as extended pace making technology, are both carried out in rising frequency. Massive pulmonary air embolism is a rare but fatal complication accompanying with such pace making process. The objective of this study was to investigate the epidemiology, pathophysiological mechanism, occurrence and treatment for this kind of complication. ⋯ Massive pulmonary air embolism during pace making which is very rare in the course of pacemaker implantation is one kind of life-threatening complication. Rapid judgment and timely treatment can avoid a catastrophic event, which could prevent adverse impact on the short-term prognosis, while further observation is required to explore the long-term prognosis.
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Eur Rev Med Pharmaco · Dec 2013
ReviewNeuropathic pain following spinal cord injury: what we know about mechanisms, assessment and management.
In biology, it is easy to understand how a damaged functional system may generate wrong signals, but why this should happen when the system is disconnected is less clear. For this reason, among other pain syndromes, neuropathic pain (NP) following spinal cord injury (SCI) leaves most questions unanswered. ⋯ Recently clinical and instrumental tools have increased our knowledge on NP, suggesting that the discovery of new treatment agents will depend on an explanation of what changes after SCI: future research must point in this direction.