Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Chronic pain is distressing for patients and a burden on healthcare systems and society. Recent research demonstrates different aspects of the negative impact of chronic pain and the positive impact of successful treatment, making an overview of the costs and consequences of chronic pain appropriate. ⋯ Strenuous efforts should be put into obtaining good levels of pain relief for people in chronic pain, including the opportunity for multiple drug switching, using reliable, validated, and relatively easily applied patient-centered outcomes. Detailed, thoughtful and informed decision analytic policy modeling would help understand the key elements in organizational change or service reengineering to plan the optimum pain management strategy to maximize pain relief and its stream of benefits against budgetary and other constraints. This paper contains the information on which such models can be based.
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Review Case Reports
Patients with a History of Spine Surgery or Spinal Injury may have a Higher Chance of Intrathecal Catheter Granuloma Formation.
Intrathecal drug delivery is an effective method to treat intractable pain. However, intrathecal catheter tip granuloma (ICTG) is a devastating complication of intrathecal drug delivery systems. It typically occurs in the thoracic region; particularly, in patients receiving high doses or high concentrations of intrathecal drug infusions. ⋯ Cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics within the spinal canal along with the physical, chemical, and immunological properties of intrathecal medications have been suggested to be responsible for the growth of inflammatory mass lesions at the tips of intrathecal drug delivery catheters. Our literature review supports the possible role of certain factors, specifically previous spine surgery or spinal injury, in granuloma formation. The rate of development of ICTG appears to be higher in patients who have had previous spine surgery or spinal injury (68%) than in a general cohort of patients (48%), with an intrathecal pump. Therefore patients with a history of spine surgery or injury may be at increased risk of ICTG when receiving chronic intrathecal analgesia.
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Over 50% of patients presenting to pain clinic with neck pain have the cervical facet joints as the source of pain. Radiofrequency (RF) treatment of the medial branch, innervating the facet joint, is a therapeutic option. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the therapeutic effect and its duration of RF treatment, using the single posterior-lateral approach in patients suffering from facet joint degeneration and to identify predictors for a long-term effect. ⋯ Radiofrequency treatment of the cervical facet joints using a single posterior-lateral approach is a promising technique in patients with chronic neck pain due to facet degeneration. The short-term and long-term therapeutic effects of this intervention justify a randomized controlled trial to estimate the efficacy of cervical facet joint RF treatment in a chronic neck pain population.
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The pathophysiology of phantom limb pain (PLP) is multifactorial. It probably starts in the periphery and is amplified and modified in the central nervous system. A small group of patients with PLP were questioned as to the portion of the phantom limb affected by pain (e.g., "great toe," "thumb"). ⋯ Evaluation of 5 patients, followed for at least 2.5 years, yielded the following results: 3 patients had excellent results (100%, 95%, and 90% decrease in complaints, respectively), 1 patient had an acceptable result (40% decrease), and 1 patient had only a 20% decrease in pain. Although both central and peripheral components are likely involved in PLP, treatment of a peripheral pain locus with cryoanalgesia should be considered. We propose the identification of a peripheral etiology may help match patients to an appropriate therapy, and cryoanalgesia may result in long-term relief of PLP.