Articles: opioid.
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Chronic opioid therapy may lead to high level tolerance development, hyperalgesia, and central sensitization, which further complicates long-term therapeutic management of chronic pain patients. In this case, we encounter a patient who was receiving over 15,000 morphine milligram equivalents through their intrathecal pain pump. Unfortunately, the intrathecal pump was inadvertently cut during a spinal surgery. It was deemed unsafe to delivery IV equivalent opioid therapy in this case; instead, the patient was admitted to the ICU and given a four-day ketamine infusion. ⋯ Ketamine may play an important role in attenuating not only tolerance but also acute withdrawal in a setting where rapid or instant weaning from high dose chronic opioid therapy is needed.
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Although postsurgical overprescription has been well-studied, postsurgical opioid underprescription remains largely overlooked. This retrospective cohort study was to investigate the extent of discharge opioid overprescription and underprescription in patients after neurological surgeries. Six thousand nine hundred forty-nine adult opioid-naive patients who underwent inpatient neurosurgical procedures at the University of California San Francisco were included. ⋯ From 2016 to 2019, the percentage of patients with opioid overprescription decreased by 24.8%, but the percentage of patients with opioid underprescription increased by 51.2%. Thus, the mismatched discharge opioid prescription in patients after neurological surgeries presented as both opioid overprescription and underprescription, with a dose-dependent increased rate of opioid refill 1 to 30 days after discharge in opioid underprescription. Although we are fighting against opioid overprescription to postsurgical patients, we should not ignore postsurgical opioid underprescription.
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Retrospective cohort study. ⋯ Patients receiving greater amounts of nonopioid intraoperative medications utilized 20% fewer postoperative morphine milligram equivalents, were discharged 22.3 hours earlier and had earlier recorded evidence of mobility. Postoperatively, nonopioid analgesics were as effective as opioids in the reduction of subjective pain ratings. This study further demonstrates the efficacy of multimodal pain management regimens in pediatric patients receiving PSF for AIS.
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Patients with blunt thoracic trauma requiring surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) frequently experience severe pain. Further, a rising prevalence of opioid-tolerant patients sustain traumatic injuries. The optimal pain management adjunct for concurrent use with SSRF remains uncertain. This study compared outcomes in patients undergoing SSRF with concomitant cryonerve block (CryoNB) or ropivacaine 0.2% elastomeric infusion pump (EIP). ⋯ The addition of intercostal CryoNB as an adjunct to multimodal pain management in trauma patients undergoing surgical fixation of rib fractures may be of benefit. Based on our early data, this technique appears to be promising in reducing opioid requirements and providing an extended duration of pain control without increased costs or complications.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2023
The need of a comprehensive approach in a condition of poorly opioid-responsive cancer pain.
Spinal analgesia is often claimed as an effective strategy for patients with a poor response to systemic opioids. Despite the optimistic data reported in literature with intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS) for cancer pain, a critical analysis showed modest benefit. Indeed, intrathecal therapy may be potent means to be used in a very selected population. However, ability to manage spinal therapy combined with the use of opioids and other drugs in the general perspective of a comprehensive palliative care treatment may allow to resolve refractory cancer pain in a patient with a clinical profile of poor pain prognosis, according to the Edmonton staging system. ⋯ No evidence-based treatment can be taken into consideration for such extreme conditions, where only experience and knowledge can guide to an effective course of treatment along a period of about six months. Timely therapeutic strategies are needed to be performed in each challenging clinical situation along the course of disease.