Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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There are few studies estimating the prevalence of chronic pain in countries from the Middle East. We translated the Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain from English into Arabic and assessed its reliability and linguistic validity before using it in a telephone survey in Libya to gather preliminary prevalence data for chronic pain. Intraclass correlations for scaled items were high, and there were no differences in answers to nominal items between the first and second completions of the questionnaire. ⋯ Some participants complained that the questionnaire was too long with a mean ± SD call duration of 20 ± 5.4 minutes. We conclude that the Arabic Structured Telephone Interviews Questionnaire on Chronic Pain was reliable and linguistically valid and could be used in a large-scale telephone survey on the Libyan population. Our preliminary estimate of prevalence should be considered with caution because of the small sample size.
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The objective of this study was to determine whether self-reported visual analogue scale (VAS) low back pain (LBP) scores are valid against matched psychophysically induced pressure pain scores. Two hundred thirty-six chronic LBP patients (some with neck pain) reported their LBP and neck pain scores on a VAS immediately before psychophysical pressure pain induction used to determine pain threshold (PTHRE), pain tolerance (PTOL), and a psychophysical pressure pain score which matched (PMAT) their current LBP. Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficients were calculated between reported VAS neck scores, reported VAS LBP scores, and the psychophysically determined LBP PMAT scores. ⋯ There was a significant correlation between the LBP PMAT scores and the reported LBP VAS scores for both types of psychophysical LBP PMAT score calculations; however, there were insignificant correlations between the LBP PMAT scores and reported neck VAS scores. Chronic LBP patients can match their self-reported VAS LBP scores to psychophysically determined LBP PMAT scores. As such, self-reported VAS chronic LBP scores appear to be valid against one type of psychophysical measurement.
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Review Meta Analysis
Assessment of research quality of telehealth trials in pain management: a meta-analysis.
Although telehealth-based pain management research has grown over the last decade, it is difficult to determine the state of the research because of methodological differences and variability in quality among existing studies. In a previous systematic review, we outlined these differences and preliminarily explored the promise of telehealth for pain intervention. We completed a PRISMA compliant meta-analysis of telehealth pain management research to more precisely describe the state of the research and to uncover gaps in the existing literature that highlight directions for future research. ⋯ However, some of the reviewed studies found no benefit for telehealth over control conditions. Some methodological concerns among the examined research included poor research quality, small sample sizes, and the examination of telehealth pain interventions without proven efficacy for in-person treatment. Recommendations for future studies are reviewed.
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Eagle (Arch Otolaryngol. 1937;25:584 and Arch Otolaryngol. 1949;49:490) first identified elongation of the styloid process and ossification of the stylohyoid ligament as a cause of orofacial pain. The elongated styloid process presses on the internal carotid artery and adjacent structures, including branches of the glossopharyngeal nerve and this produce orofacial pain. Some authors define an elongated styloid process as longer than 4 cm because this length is associated with an increase in the incidence of Eagle's syndrome. ⋯ The length of the stylohyoid process was 63 mm on the left side and 64 mm on the right. Treatment was performed by applying pulsed radiofrequency to the glossopharyngeal nerve with satisfactory results. The technique was performed twice on an outpatient basis, produced no complications or side effects, and proved effective in the short and medium term in decreasing the intensity of pain.
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Percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) is a safe and effective treatment in symptomatic patients with contained cervical herniated disks. It provides simple and efficient disk decompression, using a controlled and highly localized ablation, but evidence regarding long-term efficacy is limited. We conducted a retrospective study to investigate the long-term efficacy and safety of PCN, and the influence of ideal selection settings. ⋯ These results show long-term effectiveness and safety of PCN in patients with a one-level contained cervical herniated disk, and the reliance of selecting patients meeting ideal criteria for successful PCN.