Articles: chronic.
-
Predictors of outcome in lateral epicondylalgia, which is mainly characterized as a mechanical hyperalgesia, are largely limited to sociodemographic and symptomatic factors. Quantitative sensory testing is used to study altered pain processing in various chronic pain conditions and may be of prognostic relevance. ⋯ Early assessment of cold pain threshold could be a useful clinical tool to help identify patients at risk of poorer outcomes and might provide direction for future research into mechanism-based treatment approaches for these patients.
-
Pain is among the most important symptoms in terms of prevalence and cause of distress for cancer patients and their families. However, there is a lack of clearly defined measures of quality pain management to identify problems and monitor changes in improvement initiatives. ⋯ A set of good practice indicators has been built and pilot tested as a feasible, reliable and useful quality monitoring tool, and underscoring particular and important areas for improvement.
-
In this study, we evaluated the impacts of organ failure and residual dysfunction on 1-year survival and health care resource use using Intensive Care Unit (ICU) discharge as the starting point. ⋯ Organ failure was an important determinant of 1-year outcome of critically ill survivors. Nevertheless, the impact of organ failure tended to diminish over time. Resource use after critical illness was elevated among ICU survivors, and a targeted action is needed to deliver appropriate care and to reduce the late critical illness burden.
-
Dysnatremia, which is associated with increased mortality in general intensive care units (ICU), has not been thoroughly studied in neurologic ICU (NICU). ⋯ Dysnatremia is more common in NICU, whereas only acquired-hypernatremia was independently associated with outcome.