• Clin J Pain · Sep 2007

    Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study

    Epidural local anesthetic plus corticosteroid for the treatment of cervical brachial radicular pain: single injection versus continuous infusion.

    • Alberto Pasqualucci, Giustino Varrassi, Antonio Braschi, Vito Aldo Peduto, Andrea Brunelli, Franco Marinangeli, Fabio Gori, Francesca Colò, Antonella Paladini, and Francesco Mojoli.
    • Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University of Perugia, Italy. a.pasqualucci@libero.it
    • Clin J Pain. 2007 Sep 1;23(7):551-7.

    BackgroundEfficacy of epidural local anesthetics plus steroids for the treatment of cervicobrachial pain is uncertain.MethodsA prospective study randomized 160 patients with cervicobrachial pain resistant to conventional therapy. Patients were divided into 4 groups on the basis of the time between pain onset and treatment initiation: group A, 40 patients with pain onset 15 to 30 days; group B, 40 patients with pain from 31 to 60 days; group C, 40 patients, 61 to 180 days; and group D, 40 patients with pain >180 days. Patients of each group were randomized to receive an epidural block with bupivacaine and methylprednisolone at intervals of 4 to 5 days (Single injection) or continuous epidural bupivacaine every 6, 12, or 24 hours plus methylprednisolone every 4 to 5 days (Continuos epidural). The maximum duration of treatment (9 blocks in Single injection, and 30 days in Continuos epidural) was dependent on achieving Pain Control (PC) > or =80% [PC is defined by this formulae: (100) (VAS(initial)-VAS(final))/VAS(initial)]. Follow-up at 1 month and 6 months compared PC and the number of pain-free hours of sleep.ResultsOne hundred forty-one patients completed the study. The 4 groups had similar characteristics. At the 1-month and 6-month follow-up analysis based on the time between pain onset and treatment initiation showed that patients of group D, who received the Continuous epidural treatment, had significantly greater PC and significantly more pain-free hours of sleep compared with similar patients in Single injection.ConclusionsTherapy with continuous epidural local anesthetic and methylprednisolone provides better control of chronic cervicobrachial pain compared with Single injection. These results are discussed with respect to the possible mechanism of action of the drugs and may relate to the physiopathologic mechanisms associated with neuronal plasticity that result in chronic pain.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…