Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Retrodiscal transforaminal (RdTF) epidural steroid injection (ESI) is clinically comparable to conventional transforaminal ESI and can avoid catastrophic complications. However, it poses a risk of inadvertent intradiscal, intravascular, and intrathecal injections. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility of percutaneous epidural adhesiolysis (PEA) using the contralateral (Contra)-RdTF approach. ⋯ Although applications of this study are limited by its retrospective design, the results suggest that PEA using the Contra-RdTF approach is feasible because it can achieve EPR and avoid unintended fluoroscopic findings.
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Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) continues to gain increasing popularity in the pain management field for the treatment of different painful conditions; however, to-date, the correlation between the SCS effectiveness and biological sex has not been fully established. We aimed to investigate the correlation between the biological sex and SCS outcomes. ⋯ No biological sex-based differences in the analgesic response to SCS therapy was detected at 6- and 12-months post-SCS implant between groups with similar demographics, biomedical, and psychological values.
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The aim of this study was to determine whether the implementation of a structured exercise stretching routine targeted at resolving myofascial pain is effective in improving outcomes of "legacy pain" patients. ⋯ The addition of a structured stretching exercise program focusing on the resolution of the myofascial pain in the treatment of "legacy pain" patients was shown to significantly reduce and often discontinue opioid use without adversely affecting pain score or functionality.
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Individuals with chronic pain experience anxiety and depressive symptoms at rates higher than the general population. The Patient Health Questionnaire 2-item (PHQ-2) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD-2) are brief screening measures of depression and anxiety, respectively. These brief scales are well-suited for use in routine care due to their brevity and ease of administration, yet their psychometric properties have not been established in heterogeneous chronic pain samples when administered over the Internet. ⋯ The PHQ-2 and GAD-2 demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in the current sample, as did the long forms. Based on our findings, the PHQ-2 and GAD-2 can be used as screening tools with chronic pain samples when administered over the Internet.