Current pain and headache reports
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Headaches associated with papilledema may be both life-threatening as well as vision-threatening. This review will review the following clinical features: (1) the character of headaches associated with increased intracranial pressure; (2) the visual symptoms associated with papilledema; (3) the funduscopic findings of true papilledema versus pseudo-papilledema; (4) the role of ancillary ophthalmological testing such as visual fields and spectral domain optical coherence tomography; (5) the neuro-radiological evaluation of patients with headaches and papilledema; (6) the treatment of vision-threatening papilledema.
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Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) may experience several types of chronic pain, including peripheral and central neuropathic pain, pain secondary to overuse, painful muscle spasms, and visceral pain. An accurate classification of the patient's pain is important for choosing the optimal treatment strategy. In particular, neuropathic pain appears to be persistent despite various treatment attempts. ⋯ Nevertheless, treatment remains difficult and inadequate. In line with the recommendations for peripheral neuropathic pain, evidence from randomized controlled treatment trials suggests that tricyclic antidepressants and pregabalin are first-line treatments. This review highlights the diagnosis and classification of SCI pain and recent improvements in the understanding of underlying mechanisms, and provides an update on treatment of SCI pain.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Jun 2012
ReviewQuantitative sensory testing of neuropathic pain patients: potential mechanistic and therapeutic implications.
Quantitative sensory testing (QST) is a widely accepted tool to investigate somatosensory changes in pain patients. Many different protocols have been developed in clinical pain research within recent years. In this review, we provide an overview of QST and tested neuroanatomical pathways, including peripheral and central structures. ⋯ Clinically, QST may be useful for 1) the identification of subgroups of patients with different underlying pain mechanisms; 2) prediction of therapeutic outcomes; and 3) quantification of therapeutic interventions in pain therapy. Combined with sensory mapping, QST may provide useful information on the site of neural damage and on mechanisms of positive and negative somatosensory abnormalities. The use of QST in individual patients for diagnostic purposes leading to individualized therapy is an interesting concept, but needs further validation.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Jun 2012
ReviewWhy HURT? A review of clinical instruments for headache management.
The Global Campaign against Headache, directed by the non-governmental organization Lifting The Burden (LTB) in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), aspires to reduce the global burden of headache. Ultimately this calls for improvements in headache management, largely in primary care, where most people with headache receive medical care. In support, LTB is developing a range of headache management aids for primary care. ⋯ The first draft of the HURT was created by an expert consensus group, meeting at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The final version came about through multiple refinements following psychometric testing. Assessment of clinical utility is ongoing in multiple countries.