Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
The Impact of Massage Therapy on Function in Pain Populations-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials: Part III, Surgical Pain Populations.
Pain is multi-dimensional and may be better addressed through a holistic, biopsychosocial approach. Massage therapy is commonly practiced among patients seeking pain management; however, its efficacy is unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis is the first to rigorously assess the quality of the evidence for massage therapy's efficacy in treating pain, function-related, and health-related quality of life outcomes in surgical pain populations. ⋯ Based on the available evidence, weak recommendations are suggested for massage therapy, compared to active comparators for reducing pain intensity/severity and anxiety in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This review also discusses massage therapy safety, challenges within this research field, how to address identified research gaps, and next steps for future research.
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Identification of subjects with different sensitization mechanisms can help to identify better therapeutic strategies for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). The aim of the current study was to identify subgroups of women with CTS with different levels of sensitization. ⋯ This study showed that a clinical prediction rule originally developed for identifying women with CTS who are likely to respond favorably to manual physical therapy was able to identify women exhibiting higher widespread pressure hyper-sensitivity and thermal hyperalgesia. This subgroup of women with CTS exhibiting higher sensitization may need specific therapeutic programs.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Comparison of the Ventral Epidural Spreading in Modified Interlaminar Approach and Transforaminal Approach: A Randomized, Double-Blind Study.
To evaluate the effectiveness of a modified interlaminar (MIL) approach for accessing ventral epidural space compared with the transforaminal (TF) approach. ⋯ In cases where access to the ventral epidural space by conventional approach is limited, our MIL approach can be considered a suitable alternative, especially in the case of foraminal stenosis.
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In recent years, several published articles have demonstrated that quantitative sensory testing (QST) is useful in the analysis of musculoskeletal pain disorders. Based on the evidence from these studies, it is assumed that QST might be a useful tool in the analysis of the pathogenesis, classification, differential diagnosis, and prognosis of chronic musculoskeletal pain. ⋯ Musculoskeletal pain management may benefit from treatment algorithms that consider mechanism, pain quality, or neurophysiological correlates. Non-invasive QST may be helpful to find sensory array of altered nociceptive process. Due to the diverse etiopathogenetic basis of musculoskeletal pain disorders, a broad range of reliable and valid QST tests may be needed to analyze the various disease entities.