Articles: neuralgia.
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Chronic pain is one of the most reported health problems in patients suffering from spinal cord injuries and is described by the patients as one of the most burdensome sequelae of paraplegia. Various types of pain, such as nociceptive, neuropathic and other types of pain can occur. ⋯ These aspects necessitate a multimodal pain management approach in this patient group. This article presents an overview of the occurrence, importance and pathophysiology of chronic pain following spinal cord injury as well as diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
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Comparative Study
Provoked Vestibulodynia: A Comparative Examination of Mental Health, Sleep, Sexual Functioning, and Relationship Adjustment.
Provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) is an idiopathic vulvar pain condition characterized by burning pain at the vaginal opening in response to contact or pressure. Previous research has established some of the psychosocial difficulties experienced by these patients, but direct comparisons with other pain conditions are needed. The purpose of this study was to compare women with PVD to those with postherpetic neuralgia and pain-free control participants. ⋯ These results indicate that women with PVD and PHN experience similar mental health difficulties, but women with PHN experience more severe impact on their day-to-day functioning and mood. These results support the classification of PVD as a chronic pain condition, as both the pain groups differed from pain-free control participants on a range of measures. Finally, the presence of mental health difficulties and poorer sexual functioning highlights the importance of conducting biopsychosocial pain assessments.
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Numerous publications describe chronic pain following surgery in both adults and children. However, data in the paediatric population are still sparse and both prevalence of chronic pain after surgery and risk factors of this complication still undetermined. ⋯ Patients scheduled for spine surgery and presenting with preoperative pain should be considered at risk of chronic pain after surgery and managed accordingly by the chronic and/or acute pain team. Postoperative opioid consumption should be lowered as possible by using multimodal analgesia and regional analgesia such as postoperative epidural analgesia.
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Editorial Comment
Acute and chronic neuropathic pain after surgery: Still a lot to learn.