Articles: pain-clinics.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Comparison of topical anaesthesia methods for venous cannulation in adults.
A prospective, randomized clinical trial was performed in order to assess the efficacy and side-effects of commonly used topical anaesthesia methods in adults receiving peripheral venous cannulation. The study was double-blinded to the degree that the methodologies allowed. One hundred and fifty healthy adults undergoing elective surgery were allocated at random to five groups: EMLA cream, ethyl chloride spray, intracutaneous infiltration with 2% lidocaine, placebo cream and no treatment. ⋯ Spray did not significantly lower puncture pain (26.5) and, in addition, was associated with discomfort (10.5). In adults, EMLA cream significantly reduces puncture pain and represents an acceptable alternate method for topical anaesthesia in venous cannulation. Local lidocaine infiltration is impaired by applicational pain, whereas spraying the puncture site with ethyl chloride has no analgesic benefit.
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Health Technol Assess · Jan 1997
ReviewSystematic review of outpatient services for chronic pain control.
AIM OF REPORT. This report reviews the evidence about the effectiveness of treatments for chronic pain. While treatment of chronic pain is usually seen as an integrated service, this report concentrates on the individual interventions that constitute the service. ⋯ Topical NSAIDs (for example, gels, creams) are effective in rheumatological conditions with an overall NNT of 3. There are too few studies to determine which is the best agent. Topical NSAIDs have few adverse events; most importantly they are without the major gastrointestinal adverse events found with oral NSAIDs, which might make them an important choice for some patients with peripheral arthritis. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
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Comparative Study
Feasibility of a rapid diagnostic protocol for an emergency department chest pain unit.
To evaluate the applicability of a short-stay protocol for exclusion of acute ischemic heart disease without hospital admission and to analyze these results in the context of a conceptual model. ⋯ Although most admitted patients with chest pain (53%) were at low probability for AMI, only a minority (14%) were eligible for a short-stay protocol that required patients to be free of known coronary artery disease and able to perform an exercise tolerance test. Factors affecting the operations and efficiency of a CPOU include clinical characteristics of the target patient population, protocol tests used, and hospital occupancy and reimbursement patterns.