Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Radiofrequency intradiscal biacuplasty for treatment of discogenic lower back pain: a 12-month follow-up.
Discogenic low back pain (LBP) affects a considerable number of patients suffering from chronic LBP. Recently, a growing interest has emerged in minimally invasive treatment options for discogenic LBP. Intradiscal biacuplasty (IDB), which uses cooled radiofrequency technology to ablate nociceptors in the posterior aspect of the intervertebral disc, is one such option. We previously presented 6-month results of a randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled study. Now, we present the unblinded, 12-month follow-up data for treatment patients and 6-month data for cross-over subjects from the original sham group. ⋯ Clinically significant improvements after IDB initially reported at 6 months were maintained at 9 and 12 months. The cross-over subjects had similar improvement in all outcome measures at all observed time points.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Use of a medication quantification scale for comparison of pain medication usage in patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
To correlate the amount and types of pain medications prescribed to CRPS patients, using the Medication Quantification Scale, and patients' subjective pain levels. ⋯ There appears to be only a weak correlation between amount of pain medication prescribed and patients' reported subjective pain intensity within this limited patient population. The Medication Quantification Scale is a viable tool for the analysis of pharmaceutical treatment of CRPS patients and would be useful in further prospective studies of pain medication prescription practices in the CRPS population worldwide.