Articles: neuralgia.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Pregabalin reduces post-surgical pain after thoracotomy: a prospective, randomized, controlled trial.
A new perioperative management method was explored by assessing the safety and the efficacy of pregabalin for the treatment of intercostal neuralgia after thoracotomy. ⋯ Pregabalin is considered to be an effective and safe drug for the treatment of pain after thoracotomy.
-
Surgical nerve injury sometimes leads to chronic postsurgical neuropathic pain (CPSNP). The risk factors for this condition are not well understood. We prospectively assessed 46 patients scheduled for iliac crest bone harvest, 2 days (D2) and 3 months (M3) after surgery, to determine the time course of nerve fiber degeneration and expression of the TNF-α and NGF genes in skin punch biopsies. ⋯ However, in patients with CPSNP, burning, compression, and pain provoked by brushing were correlated with IENFD at M3, suggesting a possible association between partial nerve lesions and more intense CPSNP, than with total nerve lesion. Furthermore, preoperative pain and opioid use were higher in patients who developed CPSNP than in those without CPSNP. These findings suggest that the predictors of CPSNP development are clinical rather than histological or biochemical.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · Nov 2015
Predicting the Risk for Central Pain Using the Sensory Components of the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury.
Central neuropathic pain (CP) after spinal cord injury (SCI) is excruciating and difficult to manage. Pre-emptive treatment could be initiated in patients at risk for CP providing that it can be predicted. A combination of psychophysical tests could predict CP, but the process necessitates sophisticated equipment and constant monitoring. ⋯ At-level delta LT-PP score>1 best predicted CP; the odds of developing CP with LT-PP>1 was 24.4 times that of the reverse category (LT-PP<1). Heat-pain and touch thresholds significantly correlated with PP and LT. We conclude that the SC-ISNCSCI can be used as a clinical biomarker of CP with high probability.
-
Chemotherapeutic agents, such as cisplatin, are known to induce a persistent polyneuropathy. The mechanisms underlying the development of this pain are complex, and have only been investigated rodent models using male animals, despite an equivalent presentation of neuropathy between the sexes, clinically. ⋯ It is important to continue examining both sexes in various pain models, as a mononeuropathy and polyneuropathy show sex differences in pain development and the role of TLR signalling.
-
The function of microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) in regulating neuropathic pain has attracted increasing attention in recent years. However, the precise mechanism of miRNAs in neuropathic pain remains largely unknown. In the present study, an important role of miR‑141 and its putative target gene, high‑mobility group box‑1 (HMGB1), was demonstrated in a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI). ⋯ Overexpression of miR‑141 significantly suppressed the expression of HMGB1 in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, overexpression of HMGB1 apparently abrogated the beneficial effect of miR‑141 on inhibiting neuropathic pain. Taken together, the data suggest that overexpression of miR‑141 alleviates neuropathic pain development via targeting and inhibiting HMGB1, implying that blocking HMGB1 by miR‑141 could be a useful therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neuropathic pain.