Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Several prominent guidelines recommend that patients on long-term opioid therapy have periodic urine drug monitoring (UDM) for appropriate use; however, none address the specific questions of which patients to test, which substances to test for, how often to test, and how to act on the results. ⋯ While the participating panel members recognize that there currently is a limited evidence base to support the expert panel's recommendations, primary care providers and pain specialists are largely acting today based on anecdote, intuition, and individual experience. The recommendations are meant to begin to provide a framework for standardizing practices for UDM in the treatment of chronic pain, and to serve as a catalyst to advance research that quantifies the effects of UDM on opioid therapy management and patient outcomes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A randomized trial of epidural analgesia followed by continuous femoral analgesia compared with oral opioid analgesia on short- and long-term functional recovery after total knee replacement.
The purpose of this study was to compare continuous femoral nerve analgesia to oral opioid analgesics after discontinuation of epidural analgesia following total knee replacement. ⋯ CFA for 24 hours following discontinuation of epidural analgesia was associated with lower pain scores, greater compliance with physical therapy, increased range of motion, reduced opioid analgesia use, and greater patient satisfaction during hospitalization. The increased flexion of the operated joint was still evident at 1 month postoperatively.
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Comparative Study Controlled Clinical Trial
An exploratory analysis on the effectiveness of four strong opioids in patients with cancer pain.
This analysis, carried out in the context of a wider observational prospective study, tried to explore whether four World Health Organization/step-III opioids (morphine, oxycodone, fentanyl, and buprenorphine) had different effectiveness when using several different outcomes and endpoints. ⋯ The observed results, even if the small sample size and the nature itself of the study do not allow a definitive evaluation of the effectiveness of the drugs, underline a degree of variability among opioids and address toward a correct planning of a comparative randomized clinical trial that is now underway in Italy. For this reason, a confirmative effectiveness randomized controlled trial is required.
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Few studies demonstrate the impact of early aggressive analgesia with acute pain service (APS) involvement at combat support hospitals (CSHs) using real-time data. Collaboration between the British and the United States (US) Army led to a 3-month deployment of a US Army APS to Camp Bastion, the main British military base in southern Afghanistan, from April to July 2009. ⋯ Findings from this quality of pain care study show that aggressive multimodal analgesia interventions by an APS in a CSH is associated with decreased pain intensity and increased pain relief.
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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of attending physician awareness and utilization of a state prescription monitoring program on resident physician behavior. ⋯ Residents who used the system had, on average, a higher proportion of supervising attendings using the system; residents required to utilize the system had the highest proportion of attendings using the system. Overall, almost 90% of the physicians who utilized the system did so due to concerns surrounding prescription drug abuse. Over one third of attending physicians reported increasing the quantity or amount of medication prescribed after utilizing the system, while no residents reported similar outcomes. Through the behavioral influence of supervising attending physicians, residents were significantly more likely to utilize the system. If system utilization is desired, attendings should use the system and require resident participation.