Pain physician
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Postoperative pain is a concern after thoracic and breast surgeries. Recent studies have demonstrated that ultrasound-guided serratus anterior plane block (SAPB) could provide postoperative analgesia. ⋯ Our findings suggest that SAPB not only relieves acute pain after thoracic and breast surgery, but also reduces the incidence of chronic postsurgical pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of Different Frequencies of Electroacupuncture on Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: A Triple-blind, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Clinical Trial.
Acupuncture is one of the most widely used therapies to treat chronic low back pain, whose analgesic effect seems to be potentiated by the addition of electric current (electroacupuncture). However, we are not aware of any clinical trial that has evaluated the effectiveness of this technique in adults > 65 years. ⋯ This study provides evidence that there is no one frequency of electroacupuncture that is most effective in treating chronic low back pain in the elderly and that electroacupuncture is not superior to manual acupuncture or placebo treatment.
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Observational Study
Higher Pain Catastrophizing and Preoperative Pain is Associated with Increased Risk for Prolonged Postoperative Opioid Use.
Prolonged postoperative opioid use (PPOU) is considered an unfavorable post-surgical outcome. Demographic, clinical, and psychosocial factors have been associated with PPOU, but methods to prospectively identify patients at increased risk are lacking. ⋯ A combination of high pain catastrophizing and high preoperative pain has the potential to be a clinically useful means of identifying patients at elevated risk of PPOU.
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Zoster-associated pain (ZAP) represents an important medical, social, and economic problem. The treatment approach for ZAP continues to be challenging. Tender point infiltration (TPI) with local anesthetic and steroids has been demonstrated to have potential in the treatment of severe pain, but there are rare reports of the efficacy and security of TPI for acute and subacute ZAP. ⋯ TPI can be a useful and safe option for the control of acute and subacute ZAP with high feasibility. Early application of TPI in the acute phase of herpes zoster pain may show better clinical outcomes.