Pain physician
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Recently posterior cervical foraminotomy (PCF) performed using a minimally-invasive surgery (MIS) approach for cervical radiculopathy due to lateral disc herniation or osseous foraminal stenosis has gained popularity. As 2 dominating MIS techniques, whether FE-PCF or MI-PCF provides superior clinical outcomes remains controversial. ⋯ Cervical radiculopathy, full-endoscopic, microendoscopic, posterior cervical foraminotomy, clinical outcome, complication, reoperation, meta-analysis.
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Assessment of pain is important in daily clinical practice and as an endpoint in clinical studies. Because pain perception is highly subjective, pain measurement is complex. Self-rating pain scales are currently of great importance but have limitations. They depend on many more factors than pain, which could lead to an incorrect assessment of therapies or clinical studies. Therefore, there is need for valid, reliable, safe, and low-cost methods to determine and quantify patients' pain more objectively. ⋯ Several devices and techniques compared pain intensity experienced by patients with an external pain stimulus that potentially could be used as a new objective pain measurement tool. Given the results of our review, electrical stimulators that have been tested extensively with high validity, reliability, and feasibility would be recommended for use for clinical and research purposes. Moreover, normalization of pain intensity scores for current perception is important. Pain intensity normalization leads to higher correlations with established pain scales and possibly to increased inter-patient reliability.Registration number: Registered in the PROSPERO database (PROSPERO 2016:CRD42016041974)KEY WORDS: Systematic review, objective pain measurement, pain scales; devices, techniques, validity, reliability, safety, feasibility.
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Observational Study
Transforaminal Epiduroscopy in Patients with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.
Epiduroscopy is a useful diagnostic and therapeutic tool for managing failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). The conventional approach is via either the sacral hiatus or the interlaminar. Major causes of FBSS include epidural fibrosis, disc herniation, and stenosis. When these problems are located at the intervertebral foramen level, it can be difficult to reach the lateral recess and the foramen with the epiduroscope. Transforaminal epiduroscopy could be a useful alternative approach in patients with FBSS located at the foraminal level. ⋯ Epidural, epiduroscopy, chronic pain, spinal cord, back surgery.
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Pain arising from the lumbar facet joints is a common cause of axial back pain in adults. Radiofrequency neurotomy (RFN) of the medial branches of the spinal dorsal rami has been used as a treatment option. The most common side effect is transient, localized, burning, neuritic-type pain, termed post-neurotomy neuritis (PNN). Corticosteroids have been administered through the radiofrequency cannula after neurotomy to prevent PNN, but no study has examined the effects of this on PNN. ⋯ Radiofrequency neurotomy, radiofrequency ablation, neuritis, corticosteroid, lumbar facet pain, post neurotomy neuritis.
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Temple headaches are common, yet the anatomic etiology of headaches in this region is often confusing. One possible cause of temple headaches is dysfunction of the auriculotemporal nerve (ATN), a branch of the third division of the trigeminal nerve. However, the site of pain is often anterior to the described path of the ATN, and corresponds more closely to a portion of the path of a small branch of the second division of the trigeminal nerve called the zygomaticotemporal nerve (ZTN). ⋯ Headache, migraine, trigeminal nerve, Frey's syndrome, zygomaticotemporal nerve, auriculotemporal nerve, temple pain, jaw pain, ear pain, tooth pain.