Pain physician
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Piriformis syndrome is a constellation of symptoms associated with low back, gluteal, and sciatic pain. One treatment for piriformis syndrome is the injection of local anesthetic, steroid, or botulinum toxin into the piriformis muscle. Various approaches for needle navigation into the piriformis muscle have been described using fluoroscopy or ultrasound. This study introduces a new method of image guidance combining fluoroscopy and ultrasound. ⋯ Piriformis injections using combined fluoroscopic and ultrasound guidance provides comparable efficiency to standard techniques and may result in improved accuracy into the target and thus improved efficacy. Larger prospective trials are required to comprehensively examine the efficacy of this novel technique.
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Selective nerve root block has been widely used to treat degenerative disc disease (DDD), but no detailed research data is provided to compare the efficacy of epidural injection of anesthetics with or without steroids on the DDD treatment. ⋯ The addition of steroids to anesthetic injectates was associated with a better NRS-11 and ODI compared with LA alone within one year in patients with DDD. Furthermore, the improvement of the ODI was observed within 2 years in patients with lumbar DDD.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Comparison of Increase in the Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter between Epidural Saline and Contrast Medium Injections.
Normal saline or contrast medium is one of the widely used injection materials during fluoroscopic guided injections. Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) measurement is a reliable and noninvasive method for intracranial pressure evaluation. ⋯ Thoracic epidural injection of 5 mL normal saline or contrast medium resulted in a significant increase of ONSD compared to baseline; however, the degree of ONSD increase was more attenuated in the contrast group than the saline group.
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Chronic postsurgical pain remains a major hurdle in postoperative management, especially in patients undergoing shoulder surgery, for whom persistent pain rates are higher than for any other surgical site. Little is known about pain beliefs and attitudes as preoperative predictors of postoperative pain following nonarthroplasty shoulder surgery. ⋯ This study suggests that greater baseline kinesiophobia and pain catastrophizing are predictive of greater postoperative pain following nonarthroplasty shoulder surgery in an adult population.