Articles: back-pain.
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Chronic zygapophyseal joint arthropathy is a cause of back and neck pain. One proposed method of treating facet joint pathology is ablation of medial branches and dorsal rami with pulsed radiofrequency (RF) waves. ⋯ The results of our study showed that the application of pulsed RF to medial branches of the dorsal rami in patients with chronic facet joint arthropathy provided temporary pain relief in 68 of 118 patients.
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This is a synopsis of a symposium presented to the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada, 2002. ⋯ Spine surgeons must be aware of the common causes of FBSS in order to be able to thoroughly evaluate their patients and to minimize the occurrence of this problem.
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Clinical Trial
Spinal cord stimulation does not change peripheral skin blood flow in patients with neuropathic pain.
Spinal cord stimulation has been used successfully for many years in the management of neuropathic pain. Nociceptive pathways are closely integrated into many autonomic reflexes. The aim was to test the hypothesis that pain relief caused by spinal cord stimulation is related to changes in peripheral skin blood flow. ⋯ Pain relief due to spinal cord stimulation is not related to changes of skin blood flow.
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Review Meta Analysis
Radiofrequency denervation for neck and back pain: a systematic review within the framework of the cochrane collaboration back review group.
Systematic review. ⋯ There is limited evidence that radiofrequency denervation offers short-term relief for chronic neck pain of zygapophysial joint origin and for chronic cervicobrachial pain, and conflicting evidence for its effectiveness for lumbar zygapophysial joint pain. There is limited evidence suggesting that intradiscal radiofrequency may not be effective in relieving discogenic low back pain. Further high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed, with larger patient samples and data on long-term effects, for which current evidence is inconclusive.
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Back pain is ubiquitous and probably plagues almost everyone in all cultures and ethnic groups at some time (around 20% annually), and in up to 50% of these at least once a year. The WHO-COPCORD epidemiologic investigations have established its prevalence even in countries that had been unaware of its frequency in their populace, and factors involving type of work and training probably accounted for this misperception. Medical journals are replete with articles addressing diagnosis and treatment, but the majority fail to meet the standards needed for metaanalysis or comparison. ⋯ Even if the "disease" names classify like presentations but are not necessarily etiologically discrete, syndromic diagnoses that subsume a variety of causes receive less attention; international rankings of common disabilities and public health problems tend to emphasize the named disorders rather than the grouped disorders. Moreover, back pain is often self-treated with nonprescription medications or alternative therapies, and by nonmedical practitioners or treatments in many parts of the world. Validation of outcomes therefore not only reduces invalidism and direct costs but also reduces the indirect costs of absenteeism and medical care.