Minerva medica
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Interventional pulmonology is a subspecialty that uses advanced diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to care for patients with benign and malignant diseases of the lung, airways and pleura. There has been a rapid proliferation of new pulmonary procedural technologies over the last decade. Common diagnostic applications include endobronchial ultrasound, guided bronchoscopy and a number of pleural disease interventions. ⋯ A number of effective therapies for the management of malignant pleural disease have been studied in recent years, including chemical pleurodesis and tunnelled pleural catheters, greatly adding to our understanding of which therapy to use in which patient. In addition, flexible bronchoscopy approaches to more common disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are currently available or are being developed. This update aims to provide the internal medicine physician with a brief overview of some of the common clinical procedures performed by interventional pulmonary specialists and the current indications and evidence for their use.
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Localized neuropathic pain (LNP) is a type of neuropathic pain characterized by consistent and circumscribed area(s) of maximum pain, which are associated with negative or positive sensory signs and/or spontaneous symptoms typical of neuropathic pain. This description outlines the clinical features of a group of pathologies, in which a LNP can be diagnosed and for whom topical targeted treatment with 5% Lidocaine medicated plaster can be suggested. ⋯ In a daily practice of a Pain Unit however the usual case mix encompasses also other causes of LNP, most of them with a scanty pain control in spite of a ongoing polytherapy. Aims of this paper were to focus on 5% Lidocaine medicated plaster as a first line treatment in LNP and to add new insight on its possible use as add-on therapy reporting our data on a consecutive series of 42 patients affected by LNP under unsatisfactory polytherapy in which 5% Lidocaine medicated plaster was able to achieve a satisfactory pain control.
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Asthma is a complex inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by airway hyper-responsiveness and variable, reversible, airflow obstruction. Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a new modality for treating asthma. It targets airway smooth muscles (ASM) by delivering a controlled specific amount of thermal energy (radiofrequency ablation) to the airway wall through a dedicated catheter. ⋯ It supports the evidence that reduction in asthma attacks, ER visits, and hospitalizations for respiratory symptoms are maintained for at least 5 years. There is a pressing need to understand the underlying mechanism(s) of BT and how the delivered heat is translated into clinical benefit. This necessitates additional investigation to identify disease and patient characteristics that would enable accurate phenotyping of positive responders to avoid unnecessary procedures and risks.