Pain physician
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One consequence of the shifting economic health care landscape is the growing trend of physician employment and practice acquisition by hospitals. These acquired practices are often converted into hospital- or provider-based clinics. This designation brings the increased services of the hospital, the accreditation of the hospital, and a new billing structure verses the private clinic (the combination of the facility and professional fee billing). One potential concern with moving to a provider-based designation is that this new structure might make the practice less competitive in a marketplace that may still be dominated by private physician office-based practices. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impact of the provider-based/hospital fee structure on clinical volume. ⋯ The conversion to a hospital- or provider-based setting does not negatively impact clinical volume and referrals to community-based pain medicine practice. These results imply that factors other than price are a driver of patient choice.
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Mental nerve neuropathy (MNN), colloquially referred to as numb chin syndrome, is an uncommon neurologic condition that may arise secondary to multiple local and systemic etiologies, and may mimic other pain conditions affecting the mandible. Early recognition of mental nerve neuropathy in conjunction with accurate etiologic identification is crucial, as early pain management may prevent the transition from an acute to a chronic pain condition. In this article, we will describe the clinical courses of 2 patients who presented to the pain clinic with chronic painful numbness in the mental nerve sensory distribution following dental extraction. ⋯ The objective of our article is to help clinicians identify and properly manage early stage mental nerve neuropathy. Moreover, we aim to advance general medical knowledge of this important pain medicine topic. During the process of preparing this article we reviewed all existing pertinent medical literature related to MNN.
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Review Meta Analysis
Nucleoplasty, a minimally invasive procedure for disc decompression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of published clinical studies.
Nucleoplasty, based on Coblation® technology, is a minimally invasive procedure used to decompress herniated discs. Reviews to date--exclusively systematic reviews--recommend nucleoplasty for treating chronic back pain, although with the restriction of limited to fair evidence. We therefore aimed to summarize and interpret our calculated results, where possible comprehensively and quantitatively, using statistical methods in the context of a meta-analysis supplementing a systematic review. In the process, the central question was to statistically determine whether, and to what extent, nucleoplasty can positively affect pain relief and functional mobility as well as lower the complication rate. ⋯ Nucleoplasty reduces pain in the long term and improves patients' functional mobility. It is an effective, low-complication, minimally invasive procedure used to treat disc herniations.