Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of 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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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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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.
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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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Numerous mechanical and pathologic variables contribute to sacroiliac joint (SIJ) pain. The oncologic population has additional considerations, including tumor burden causing fracture, nerve compression, joint instability, and periosteal inflammation. Post-treatment changes may also restrict joint mobility, causing transitional pain. Currently, fluoroscopically guided SIJ injections, aimed at the inferior one third of the SIJ, are the gold standard for treatment but have only been described in the nononcologic population. Ultrasound (US) guidance may confer several benefits, including positioning, ease of procedure, lower costs, and, importantly, guidance to avoid neovascularization, metastatic disease, and other soft tissue structures. ⋯ We propose a decision framework for inferior vs. superior approach US-guided SIJ injections in the oncologic population with SIJ pain from metastases to the pelvis or sacrum. Having multiple techniques to approach the SIJ is important in the oncologic population, in whom metastatic tumor burden poses a technical challenge to performing these injections.