Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
-
Observational Study
Independent Predictors for Higher Postoperative Pain Intensity During Recovery After Open Thoracic Surgery: A Retrospective Analysis in 621 Patients.
To evaluate two standard procedure-specific pain regimens and to assess independent predictors for higher pain intensity after thoracic surgery. ⋯ The study design is retrospective.
-
Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Radiopaque Gelified Ethanol Application in Lumbar Intervertebral Soft Disc Herniations: Croatian Multicentric Study.
Minimally invasive percutaneous spinal procedures are popular in trying to reduce spinal pain. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the safety of intervertebral disc chemonucleolysis and to report the effectiveness of a percutaneous, minimally invasive treatment for contained herniated intervertebral discs in the lumbar spine using the recently marketed radiopaque gelified ethanol. ⋯ Intradiscal application of gelified ethanol may be effective in pain reduction using the VNS and Roland-Morris low back pain and disability questionnaire. The treatment is safe and easy to handle.
-
Persistent pain causes untold misery worldwide and is a leading cause of disability. Despite its astonishing prevalence, pain is undertreated, at least in part because existing therapeutics are ineffective or cause intolerable side effects. In this review, we cover new findings about the neurobiology of pain and argue that all but the most transient forms of pain needed to avoid tissue damage should be approached as a disease where a cure can be the goal of all treatment plans, even if attaining this goal is not yet always possible. ⋯ We conclude that the confluence of new basic science discoveries and development of new technologies are creating a path toward pain therapeutics that should offer significant hope of a cure for patients and practitioners alike. Classification of Evidence. Our review points to new areas of inquiry for the pain field to advance the goal of developing new therapeutics to treat chronic pain.