Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Increasingly, patients are seeking same-day care at urgent care (UC) facilities. Little is known about the health care utilization patterns of patients who visit UC facilities for headache and migraine. We examined the frequency of headache and migraine visits and revisits at UC facilities. ⋯ In just eight months, there were >10,000 headache NOS and migraine visits to UC facilities in NYC, with half of revisits occurring within 90 days. Future work should examine headache management in UC facilities.
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To determine the short-term effect of graded motor imagery (GMI) on the affective components of pain and range of motion in subjects with chronic shoulder pain syndrome. ⋯ We conclude that a short-term GMI program improves the affective components of pain and shoulder flexion AROM in patients with chronic shoulder pain syndrome.
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Types and correlates of pain medication agreement (PMA) violations in the primary care setting have not been analyzed. ⋯ PMA violations were common among a population of patients managed for chronic nonmalignant pain. Universal opioid prescribing precautions, including PMAs, require further investigation to assess their roles in mitigating the potential patient and societal harms associated with opioid prescribing.
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Cervical medial branch radiofrequency ablation (CMBRFA) is an effective treatment for facetogenic pain in patients selected by Spine Intervention Society (SIS) guidelines of 100% symptom improvement with dual medial branch blocks (MBBs) ± placebo block. Patient selection for CMBRFA using ≥80% symptom improvement after dual concordant MBBs is common; however, this has not been studied. ⋯ CMBRFA is an effective treatment in patients who report ≥80% symptom relief with dual concordant MBBs. The present study demonstrated an overall ≥50% pain reduction rate of 54% and no significant difference between those selected by 80-99% vs 100% symptom relief with dual concordant MBBs.