Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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To characterize comorbidities, pain-related pharmacotherapy, and healthcare resource use among patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (pDPN) newly prescribed pregabalin or gabapentin in clinical practice. ⋯ Patients with pDPN prescribed pregabalin and gabapentin had a substantial comorbidity and pain medication burden. Although healthcare costs increased in both groups, the increase in pain medication burden was higher in the gabapentin group. Direct medical costs were similar for both groups. Given the human and economic burden of pDPN, future research may benefit from a focus on efficacy parameters to further differentiate treatment options.
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Although previous studies suggest that the clinical setting of an interdisciplinary pain treatment program may provide an optimal environment to promote smoking cessation, currently available smoking cessation interventions may be less effective for adults with chronic pain due, in part, to unrecognized clinical factors related to chronic pain. The specific aim of this qualitative study was to solicit information from adult smokers with chronic pain participating in an interdisciplinary pain treatment program regarding their perceptions of how smoking affects pain symptoms, and how these beliefs, cognitions, and emotions may either impede or facilitate smoking cessation. Similar information was solicited from a group of pain specialty physicians. ⋯ Important barriers were identified toward making a quit attempt during pain treatment including quitting smoking while making changes in opioid use, and perceived difficulty managing multiple treatment-related stressors. Several pain-related benefits of smoking cessation were identified by physicians, but important barriers to providing smoking cessation services were recognized including lack of time and knowledge about how to help patients quit smoking. The findings of this study identified several novel and important clinical factors that should be incorporated into a targeted smoking cessation intervention for adults with chronic pain.
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An 80-year-old female with a history of osteoporosis was evaluated for sudden onset axial low back pain with bilateral lower extremity weakness, hyperreflexia, pain, urinary retention, and decreased rectal tone. Computed tomography of the lumbar spine revealed L1 compression fracture, retropulsion of bone causing spinal canal compromise with associated severe central canal stenosis. ⋯ Chest radiograph and computed tomographic pulmonary angiogram revealed a large collection of hyperdense material within the right lower lobe pulmonary artery, consistent with pulmonary cement emboli. Management and imaging are discussed.