Articles: pain-measurement.
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To avoid negative effects of painful stimuli under general anesthesia, an adequate analgesia is needed. Since both overdosing and underdosing of analgesics may lead to negative consequences, an optimal dosing is crucial, requiring a continuous monitoring of the balance between the ongoing nociception and the level of analgesia. ⋯ For the routine application of monitors of nociception and analgesia in daily clinical practice, large clinical studies are necessary, proving a positive outcome effect. Without reliable parameters for nociception and analgesia it was hitherto impossible to perform such studies. The progress made in recent years generates optimism that in the not too distant future the currently available methods to monitor nociception and analgesia might improve to a level of reliability to allow them to be used to investigate the clinical outcome relevance of nociception and analgesia.
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Review Comparative Study
[Pain medicine from intercultural and gender-related perspectives].
Cultural setting and sex and gender of the patient are important factors affecting the occurrence, severity, clinical course and prognosis of pain and pain-related diseases. Intercultural differences in the perception and verbal expression of symptoms and emotional function are fundamental and it is important to realize these differences in order to understand patients with a migration background. A trusting doctor-patient relationship is generally very sensitive and it is even more difficult to establish when differences in the cultural background impair mutual understanding. ⋯ Research is needed to delineate the role of specific aspects affecting sex and gender differences and the underlying mechanisms (e.g. reduced inhibitory control, hormones, psychological aspects and social factors). Altogether, we need to open our minds to some intercultural and sex and gender aspects in the clinical setting. For sex and gender differences we may need a more biopsychosocial approach to understand the underlying differences and differentiate between sex and gender and sex and gender-associated aspects for acute and chronic pain.
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Pain is common in patients after orthopedic surgery. The 11-face Faces Pain Scale has not been validated for use in adult patients with postoperative pain. To assess the validity of the 11-face Faces Pain Scale and its ability to detect responses to pain medications, and to determine whether the sensitivity of the 11-face Faces Pain Scale for detecting changes in pain intensity over time is associated with gender differences in adult postorthopedic surgery patients. ⋯ When the scores from each follow-up test (Times 2-5) were compared with those from the baseline test (Time 1), the effect sizes were -0.70, -1.05, -1.20, and -1.31, and the standardized response means were -1.17, -1.59, -1.66, and -1.82, respectively. The mean change in pain intensity, but not gender-time interaction effect, over the five time points was significant (F = 182.03, p < .001). Our results support that the 11-face Faces Pain Scale is appropriate for measuring acute postoperative pain in adults.
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Anterior cruciate ligament tears are one of the most frequent soft tissue injuries of the knee. A torn anterior cruciate ligament leaves the knee joint unstable and at risk for further damage to other soft tissues manifested as pain, dislocation, and osteoarthritis. A better understanding of the anatomical details of knee joints suffering anterior cruciate ligament tears is needed to understand and develop prediction models for anterior cruciate ligament injury and/or tear. ⋯ Anterior cruciate ligament injury has been shown to be caused by the forces which act on the ligament. These forces can result from hyperextension of the tibia or the internal rotation of tibia. The anatomical parameters of the knee joint (i.e., notch width index, anterior cruciate ligament width and length) have no role in the cause of an injury.