Articles: neuralgia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the application of capsaicin cream in chronic distal painful polyneuropathy.
We have completed a 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized study on the efficacy of the application of capsaicin (CAPS) cream (0.075%) in the treatment of chronic distal painful polyneuropathy. Forty patients were enrolled and 39 completed the study. The 2 limbs were randomly assigned to CAPS or placebo (PLAC). ⋯ All the safety indices showed no difference between sides. We interpret the early hyperalgesia on the CAPS side as being responsible for the better performance of PLAC at early time points. The large percentage of limbs that improved may be a pronounced PLAC response.
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We report a case of spinal neurinoma at a high thoracic level, whose main presentation was intractable pain in a body part innervated by the right femoral nerve. Sensations of pain and temperature were impaired in the right thigh, but usual symptoms of myelopathy were undetectable. In conjunction with the other reports, this case suggests that spinal tumors at high thoracic levels can produce remote symptoms mimicking peripheral neuropathy such as femoral or sciatic neuralgia.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Famciclovir for the treatment of acute herpes zoster: effects on acute disease and postherpetic neuralgia. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Collaborative Famciclovir Herpes Zoster Study Group.
To document the effects of treatment with famciclovir on the acute signs and symptoms of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia. ⋯ Oral famciclovir, 500 mg or 750 mg three times daily for 7 days, is an effective and well-tolerated therapy for herpes zoster that decreases the duration of the disease's most debilitating complication, postherpetic neuralgia.
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Chronic constriction injury to the rat's infraorbital nerve (IoN-CCI) induces asymmetric face grooming directed to the injured nerve territory and, beginning at 7-12 days postoperative, hyperresponsiveness to mechanical stimulation in this territory (B. P. Vos, A. ⋯ Neither condition nor stimulus intensity affected fos-LI in the contralateral medullary dorsal horn. Positive correlations were found between the behavioral parameters of increased trigeminal nociceptive activity and the total amount of fos-LI in the ipsilateral medullary dorsal horn. The results demonstrate that IoN-CCI induces significant alterations in the central processing of afferent signals, which may underlie behavioral manifestations of increased nociceptive activity.
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Chronic pain requires chronic treatment. Dihydrocodeine retard (DHC) complies with the requirements for treatment of chronic pain: its sustained release formula provides pain relief for up to 12 h. Thus, taking two tablets of this preparation daily is sufficient to ensure continuous pain relief. ⋯ The most frequent side effects were gastrointestinal (n=106), followed by symptoms related to the central nervous system such as dizziness, sedation, etc. (n=50), and non-specific symptoms such as indisposition (n=29). Other specific symptoms were rare and distributed over many different organ systems. Insummary, the findings of this post marketing surveillance study suggest that sustained-release dihydrocodeine is an effective and safe analgesic drug for the treatment of chronic pain of various causes.