Articles: pain-management.
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The following discussion demonstrates a clinical need for a physical education service in a multidisciplinary pain center. Weight loss, and physical and aerobic conditioning are essential aspects of managing pain. By improving patient care and increasing one's pain center attraction, physical education and aerobic research centers can also increase departmental revenues.
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Regional anesthesia · Mar 1991
Case ReportsA new interabdominis approach to inguinal region block for the management of chronic pain.
The use of an indwelling catheter for repeated injections of local anesthetics has been a beneficial addition to our armamentarium for management of chronic pain syndromes. Indwelling catheters take advantage of anatomic planes, and the concept of an interabdomins muscular plane allows placement of a catheter along the course of the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves. We report the successful treatment of chronic groin pain via an interabdominis indwelling catheter. This is the first report of the use of such an indwelling catheter.
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This in-depth study examines the relationships between patient, stimulator and outcome variables in a large number of chronic pain patients utilising TENS on a long-term basis. 179 patients completed a TENS questionnaire designed to record age, sex, cause and site of pain and TENS treatment regime. Of these 179 patients, 107 attended our research unit for assessment of the electrical characteristics of TENS during self-administered treatment. Although a remarkable lack of correlation between patient, stimulator and outcome variables was found to exist, the analysis revealed much information of importance: 47% of patients found TENS reduced their pain by more than half; TENS analgesia was rapid both in onset (less than 0.5 h in 75% patients) and in offset (less than 0.5 h in 51% patients); one-third of patients utilised TENS for over 61 h/week; pulse frequencies between 1 and 70 Hz were utilised by 75% of patients; 44% of patients benefitted from burst mode stimulation. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Contemporary orthopaedics · Mar 1991
Sciatic nerve block for residual limb pain following below-knee amputation.
Ten adult patients with diffuse nonphantom limb pain in the residual limb following below-knee amputation underwent from one to four sciatic nerve blocks for the treatment of that pain. Amputation had been performed for peripheral vascular insufficiency in eight patients and for problems resulting from open fractures in two. None of the patients had responded to prosthetic modification, oral medication, or transcutaneous nerve stimulation for treatment of their pain. At one-year following treatment with sciatic nerve blocks as described in this report, one patient had not responded well to treatment but six patients had a resolution of their symptoms, and three had less subjective pain adequate to resume their normal daily activities.