Collegium antropologicum
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Collegium antropologicum · Dec 2013
Intermittent epidural TOP-UPS vs. patient control epidural analgesia during labor.
Pain during labor and delivery is often very unpleasant and stressful for the parturients. Patient controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) has been found to be both safe and effective, providing optimal pain relief and allowing women to participate in their own analgesia). Compared to other epidural techniques, intermittent epidural top-ups and continuous epidural analgesia (CEA), PCEA uses diluted local anesthetic solutions with less motor block and less unscheduled clinician interventions. ⋯ We evaluated duration of labor, maternal sense of pain using VAS scale and maternal satisfaction during fetal descent in both groups. We found that the duration of labor was significantly shorter and maternal sense of pain was lower in the PCEA group than in the group receiving epidural bolus top-ups. There were no differences between groups in maternal satisfaction during fetal descent.
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The aim of this study was to analyze the association between chronic low back pain (LBP) in chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with quality and intensity of pain experience. A total of 406 war veterans from 1991-1995 war in Croatia participated in this study. They were divided into four groups, according to psychiatric interview, psychometric testing and the presence of LBP verified by the imaging of lumbar area, into: (i) war veterans suffering from PTSD and LBP (N = 102), (ii) war veterans suffering from PTSD only (N = 108), (iii) war veterans suffering from LBP only (N = 99) and (iv) healthy controls (N = 97). ⋯ The patients with chronic PTSD had significantly higher total pain scores as well as affective and sensory pain components when compared to the patients without PTSD. No significant association was found between chronic LBP and symptoms of PTSD. Chronic LBP as functional painful syndrome in PTSD could be result of altered neuroanatomical and neurophysiological pain pathway and one of the markers of PTSD.