British journal of anaesthesia
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Chronic pain is an important problem after critical care admission. Estimates of the prevalence of chronic pain in the year after discharge range from 14% to 77% depending on the type of cohort, the tool used to measure pain, and the time point when pain was assessed. The majority of data available come from studies using health-related quality of life tools, although some have included pain-specific tools. ⋯ Older age, pre-existing pain, and medical co-morbidity have been associated with pain after critical care admission. No trials were identified of interventions to target chronic pain in survivors specifically. Larger studies, using pain-specific tools, over an extended follow-up period are required to confirm the prevalence, identify risk factors, explore any association between acute and chronic pain in this setting, determine the underlying pathological mechanisms, and inform the development of future analgesic interventions.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Remote ischaemic preconditioning does not modulate the systemic inflammatory response or renal tubular stress biomarkers after endotoxaemia in healthy human volunteers: a single-centre, mechanistic, randomised controlled trial.
Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) consists of repeated cycles of limb ischaemia and reperfusion, which may reduce perioperative myocardial ischaemic damage and kidney injury. We hypothesised that RIPC may be beneficial by attenuating the systemic inflammatory response. We investigated whether RIPC affects the response in humans to bacterial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]) by measuring plasma cytokines and renal cell-cycle arrest mediators, which reflect renal tubular stress. ⋯ NCT02602977.
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Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) can have a significant impact on wellbeing and quality of life. Limited data exist for treatments that improve TN pain acutely, within 24 h of administration. This systematic review aims to identify effective treatments that acutely relieve TN exacerbations. ⋯ Several treatment options exist that may provide fast and safe relief of TN. Future studies should report on outcomes within 24 h to improve knowledge of the acute analgesic TN treatments.
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Pain is recognised to have both a sensory dimension (intensity) and an affective dimension (unpleasantness). Pain feels like a single unpleasant bodily experience, but investigations of human pain have long considered these two dimensions of pain to be separable and differentially modifiable. The evidence underpinning this separability and differential modifiability is seldom presented. We aimed to fill this gap by evaluating the current evidence base for whether or not the sensory and affective dimensions of pain can be selectively modulated using cognitive manipulations. ⋯ We offer potential explanations for this discrepancy between assumptions and evidence and contend that this finding highlights several important questions for the field, from both the research and clinical perspectives.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The association between decrease in cerebral oxygen saturation during cardiac surgery and postoperative cognitive dysfunction: secondary analysis of a randomised trial.
Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) occurs commonly after cardiac surgery. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used to monitor regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rScO2) in order to minimise the occurrence of POCD by applying dedicated interventions when rScO2 decreases. However, the association between rScO2 intraoperatively and POCD has not been clarified. ⋯ NCT02185885.