Pain physician
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Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a shift in medical paradigms and about solving clinical problems, acknowledging that intuition, unsystematic clinical experience, and pathophysiologic rationale are insufficient grounds for clinical decision-making. The importance of randomized trials has been created by the concept of the hierarchy of evidence in guiding therapy. Even though the concept of hierarchy of evidence is not absolute, in modern medicine, most researchers synthesizing the evidence may or may not follow the principles of EBM, which requires that a formal set of rules must complement medical training and common sense for clinicians to interpret the results of clinical research. ⋯ Multiple types of controlled trials include placebo-controlled and pragmatic trials. Placebo controlled RCTs have multiple shortcomings such as cost and length, which limit the availability for studying certain outcomes, and may suffer from problems of faulty implementation or poor generalizability, despite the study design which ultimately may not be the prime consideration when weighing evidence for treatment alternatives. However, in practical clinical trials, interventions compared in the trial are clinically relevant alternatives, participants reflect the underlying affected population with the disease, participants come from a heterogeneous group of practice settings and geographic locations, and endpoints of the trial reflect a broad range of meaningful clinical outcomes.
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A number of variables have contributed to the current crisis in chronic pain care and are affected by, and affect, the philosophies and politics that influence the socio-economic climate of the American healthcare system. Thus, we posit that managing the crisis in chronic pain care in the United States is contingent upon the development of a multi-focal healthcare paradigm that more thoroughly enables and fortifies research, its translation (in education and practice), and the implementation of, and support for, both the curative and healing approaches in medicine in general, and pain care specifically. These steps necessitate re-examination, if not revision of the health care system and its economics. ⋯ But establishing such a system does not guarantee access, and distribution of these services and resources requires economic support to ensure that capabilities are more broadly available (i.e., supplied), and afforded as needed and wanted (i.e., demanded). Toward this end, we posit the need to focus upon, and more fully integrate 1) education, 2) multi-disciplinary care (including re-vivification of MPCs), 3) policies that allow financial subsidies that afford patients the latitude to access and utilize such expanded resources appropriately to meet identified medical needs, and 4) medico-legal initiatives and statutes that protect and enable patients and physicians. The proposed changes comport with a number of ethical systems in that they support the basic deontic structure of the profession and allow for a richer, more finely grained articulation of clinical and ethical responsibilities within the scope of particular general, specialty, and sub-specialty practices.
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Cervicogenic headache descriptors include its unilateral nature, "signs and symptoms linking it to the neck," and trauma of the neck. Since the pain often occurs over the C2 or C3 nerve root, we used a modification of the deep cervical block technique for treatment of this refractory type headache. ⋯ These results showed that for some patients this series of blocks provided effective pain relief for 3 months post treatment but by 6 months the pain had returned to pre-treatment levels. This block technique significantly diminished pain after the initial as well as the last treatment. These clinically significant changes in pain relief suggest that more aggressive selective therapy targeting these nerve routes might provide longer lasting relief.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Preliminary results of a randomized, equivalence trial of fluoroscopic caudal epidural injections in managing chronic low back pain: Part 2--Disc herniation and radiculitis.
The pathophysiology of lumbar radicular pain is a subject of ongoing research. The prevalence of sciatica or radiculitis ranges from 1.2% to 43%. Epidural injections are one of the most commonly performed interventions in the United States in managing chronic low back and lower extremity pain secondary to disc herniation and radiculitis. There is a paucity of evidence with contemporary methodology used in performing epidural injections under fluoroscopy and based on pain relief and functional status improvement. ⋯ Caudal epidural injections with or without steroids may be effective in patients with disc herniation or radiculitis with between 79% to 91% of patients showing significant pain relief and improvement in functional status.
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Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) may be helpful in treating pain and vascular insufficiency associated with inoperable peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Often decision-making regarding progression from trial to implantation is based on subjective measures. Transcutaneous oxygen pressure, a measure of microcirculation and tissue perfusion, provides information on changes that may occur in PVD patients that undergo SCS trials and may provide predictive information for patient outcomes. ⋯ We provide a review on transcutaneous oxygen pressure monitoring, along with emphasis on the technical aspects of transcutaneous oxygen pressure monitoring and its incorporation into practice. The decision to implant a SCS should be based on not only subjective measures of improvement, but also objective measures of improvement in transcutaneous oxygen pressure. Additional research is warranted to develop transcutaneous oxygen pressure predictive indices to assist in the selection of patients for progression to permanent implantation.