Articles: treatment.
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Opioid analgesics are commonly used to treat acute and chronic pain following traumatic injury. Psychiatric comorbidity has been reported to be associated with increased pain and persistent opioid use. Our aims were to determine the extent of post-injury opioid use and assess whether pre-injury antidepressant, benzodiazepine, and z-hypnotic drug use is associated with increased post-injury opioid use. ⋯ This large registry-based study adds to the body of knowledge on opioid use beyond in-hospital care in patients having sustained traumatic injury, a field which is scarcely investigated and not yet fully understood. It suggests that both previous drug therapy and the nature of opioid treatment initiation may affect outcome. This will help guide clinicians in selecting the appropriate pain management in this patient group.
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Rhinitis affects a significant portion of the world population and increases the cost of health care by billions of dollars in treatment costs and missed days of work. Allergic rhinitis is the most common cause. ⋯ Initial treatment includes using topical agents like intranasal corticosteroids and inhaled antihistamines as the first-line therapies for both allergic rhinitis and chronic rhinitis. Therapy can evolve in a stepwise manner depending on the primary symptom complaint prior to referral for advanced therapies such as allergen immunotherapy.
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Case Reports
Superselective Angiography of Vasa Vasorum Within Partially Thrombosed Vertebral Aneurysm: A Case Report.
Partially thrombosed vertebral artery aneurysms (PTVAs) are rare, most of which are not easy to treat. Furthermore, endovascular treatment of PTVAs may not have favorable outcomes. The relationship between PTVAs and well-developed vasa vasorum (VV), including the mechanism of aneurysm growth, has been reported, but there are no reports of imaging findings by digital subtraction angiography (DSA). In this case, we successfully performed superselective angiography of well-developed VV and evaluated its imaging characteristics. We present the first DSA report of a well-developed VV of PTVA. ⋯ We successfully identified a VV within PTVA. Superselective VV angiography showed staining of the thrombosed component and venous return draining into the suboccipital cavernous sinus. In this case, the embolization of the VV proved to be an effective endovascular treatment of PTVA, but the safety of this method is a challenge. Further case studies are required to validate this method, and we hope it will evolve into a new treatment of PTVA.
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The benefit of middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) in the treatment of chronic subdural hematoma (CSDH) has been recently demonstrated in a series of clinical trials. Whether MMAE benefits "trial-ineligible" patients remains elusive. We thus sought to explore the potential benefit of MMAE in neurologically stable (modified Rankin Scale ≤3) patients with "trial-ineligible" CSDHs because of large size: Thickness >15 mm and/or midline shift ≥5 mm. ⋯ This study emphasizes the considerable prevalence of potentially "trial-ineligible" patients with CSDHs because of large size that may still benefit from standalone MMAE.
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Observational Study
Medical Malpractice in Neurosurgery: An Analysis of Claims in the Netherlands.
Studying malpractice claims is important to improve quality of health care and patient safety and to educate the individual healthcare providers. The objective of this study was to describe characteristics of neurosurgical claims in the Netherlands. ⋯ Neurosurgery-related malpractice claims primarily involved spinal pathology and were mostly related to alleged treatment errors. Most claims did not result in compensation because there seemed to be no liability or culpable injury. However, the annual risk for a claim for Dutch neurosurgeons is considerable.