Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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The goal of the present study was to explore additional evidence of validity of the Serbian version of the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), a patient-reported outcome measure of symptoms that have been found to be associated with central sensitization (CS). The CSI has been found to be psychometrically sound, and has demonstrated evidence of convergent and discriminant validity in numerous published studies and in multiple languages. ⋯ The current study successfully demonstrated additional evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the Serbian version of the CSI.
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Trait mindfulness has been found to be inversely associated with emotional distress such as depression and anxiety among patients suffering from pain. The current study investigated the putative mechanisms underlying these associations by examining whether pain catastrophizing mediates the association between mindfulness and psychological distress and whether this model differs in patients suffering from chronic pain compared to patients experiencing nonchronic pain in a medical rehabilitation setting. ⋯ The negative association between trait mindfulness and psychological distress may thus be partly attributed to pain catastrophizing: individuals high in trait mindfulness engage in less catastrophic thinking and therefore experience less distress. Importantly, this was only observed in the patients with chronic pain. These results further underscore the need to cope with pain catastrophizing and encourage mindfulness among patients with chronic pain.
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We describe a case of a patient suffering with cervical radiculopathy due to vertebral artery loop with nerve root compression, treated with an epidural steroid injection. A 37-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of right-sided radicular pain along the C7 dermatome. Imaging showed a right-sided loop of the vertebral artery at the V1-V2 transition with contact on the C7 nerve root. ⋯ The procedure was uneventful, and the symptoms resolved completely after the procedure. Targeted epidural steroid injection might be a useful and safe diagnostic and therapeutic approach in patients affected by cervical radiculopathy due to a VA loop. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a VA loop associated with cervical radiculopathy treated with this technique.
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A method for modeling the acute pain trajectory using the simple linear fit of an individual's pain intensity scores after surgery was developed and affords more precise measurement than conventional pain assessment. However, the method has the disadvantage of using only the slope without considering the intercept. The purpose of this study was to verify our modification of the pain trajectory model including slope and intercept and to identify clusters. ⋯ Our results suggest that the pain trajectory using the slope and intercept is quite useful for predicting postoperative pain at 30 days after surgery. Additionally, patients were classified into 4 groups using the slope and intercept. By considering both the slope and intercept, clinicians may be able to detect the risk for prolonged pain earlier than other methods.
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Case Reports
Needle-through-needle technique in lumbar interlaminar epidural steroid injection: a case report.
When performing lumbar epidural steroid injection on obese patients, needle placement can be challenging due to the difficulty in estimating the appropriate needle length to utilize. Often times, the standard 3.5-inch Tuohy needle is too short to reach its target. ⋯ This technique can facilitate quicker needle placement by avoiding the need for restarting the procedure with a longer needle. Thus, procedural time and radiation exposure may be decreased, as may patient discomfort from repeat needle insertions.