European journal of pain : EJP
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Multicenter Study
Effect of patient and nurse ethnicity on emergency department analgesia for children with appendicitis in israeli government hospitals.
Ethnicity is a risk factor for disparate Emergency Department (ED) analgesia. We aimed to explore ethnic variations in the administration of ED analgesia to children with acute appendicitis in Israeli government hospitals. ⋯ Emergency Department analgesia for children with acute appendicitis in Israeli government hospitals is markedly low. Patient-provider ethnic discordance may negatively influence the provision of analgesia. Significant efforts should be undertaken in order to increase analgesia provision rates and reduce social inequality.
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Patients with diabetic polyneuropathy commonly suffer from ongoing burning pain and dynamic mechanical allodynia. In this clinical and skin biopsy study, we aimed at assessing how intraepidermal regenerating nerve sprouts are associated with these two types of pain. ⋯ Our skin biopsy study showing that regenerating sprouts, as assessed with GAP43-staining, were strongly associated with ongoing burning pain, improves our knowledge on the mechanisms underlying neuropathic pain in patients with diabetes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of repeated conditioning pain modulation in healthy volunteers.
Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) may be impaired in chronic pain patients compared with healthy subjects. The CPM-effect is the difference between pain sensitivity assessments (test-stimuli) with and without a painful conditioning stimulus. CPM has been extensively explored but effects of repeated CPM-effects and differences between repeated CPM assessments and comparable control conditions are less studied. ⋯ Conditioning pain modulation can be assessed in 5-min intervals by cuff algometry with a fixed conditioning stimulus. Without applying conditioning stimuli the pain sensitivity of test-stimuli habituated. As a consequence, it can be speculated that the conditioning stimulus may negate the temporal habituation effects during repeated sessions, whereas this may not be the case for unconditioned stimuli. Applying both conditioned and unconditioned repeated test-stimuli may be a way to assess different parts of the pain modulatory system, and a model for measuring a netCPM-effect, which could indicate a balance between habituation and sensitization, is proposed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of medial versus lateral knee pain on deep tissue hyperalgesia and muscle strength.
Accumulating evidence indicates that knee pain gives rise to sensory and motor alterations, however, whether different profile of knee pain causes different alterations has not been investigated. The purpose of this experimental study is to clarify characteristics of medial and lateral knee pain and its potential for modulating sensory and motor function in humans. ⋯ The experimental medial knee pain model demonstrated higher pain intensity, more localized pain distribution, widespread deep tissue hyperalgesia and more severe inhibition of muscle strength compared with the lateral knee pain model.
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Pain is prevalent in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) appears to be a feasible questionnaire to assess this symptom. However, the reliability and validity of the BPI have not been determined in individuals with COPD. This study aimed to determine the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and validity (construct, convergent, divergent and discriminant) of the BPI in individuals with COPD. ⋯ This study formally established the reliability and validity of the BPI in individuals with COPD, which have not been determined in this patient group. The results of this study provide strong evidence that assessment results from this pain questionnaire are reliable and valid.