Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Acute postsurgical pain is common and has potentially negative long-term consequences for patients. In this study, we evaluated effects of presurgery sociodemographics, pain experiences, psychological influences, and surgery-related variables on acute postsurgical pain using logistic regression vs classification tree analysis (CTA). ⋯ Together, these findings underscored the potential utility of CTA as a means of identifying patient subgroups with higher and lower risk for severe acute postoperative pain based on interacting characteristics.
-
It is recommended that positives in immunoassay drug screens be followed up with more specific confirmatory testing. The drug package insert for pantoprazole mentions reports of false-positive urine screening tests for tetrahydrocannabinol in patients receiving proton pump inhibitors, but no method details or data are given, referenced, or found in literature searches. Thus, we investigated this using our laboratory's assay. ⋯ We find no supporting evidence of pantoprazole as the cause of false positives in the EMIT II Plus Cannabinoid assay and caution the use of proton pump inhibitors as an explanation for tetrahydrocannabinol immunoassay false positives.
-
Pain pressure thresholds (PPT) are used to study peripheral and central pain processing. In the tendon, pathological changes may exist without pain. This pilot study aimed to compare PPT between individuals with normal tendons and asymptomatic tendon pathology, and between individuals with and without a history of tendon pain. ⋯ Asymptomatic tendon pathology is associated with higher PPTs. These findings point toward central nervous system adaptations but in a novel way-central desensitization. This challenges the validity of conclusions drawn from PPT studies that do not verify normal structure in the control group; artificial inflation of control group data may incorrectly indicate decreased PPTs in the comparison group.
-
Chronic abdominal wall pain arising from the myofascial structures is termed abdominal myofascial pain syndrome and is an important cause of refractory abdominal pain that utilizes significant health care costs. The current literature is vague on its management. ⋯ Abdominal myofascial pain syndrome is often unrecognized, especially in patients with a history of visceral inflammation. The suggested pathway may be an option in its management. Trigger point injection with steroids may have a role in the differential diagnosis of chronic abdominal pain.