Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2019
Peripheral nerve blocks are not associated with increased risk of perioperative peripheral nerve injury in a Veterans Affairs inpatient surgical population.
Perioperative peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a known complication in patients undergoing surgery with or without regional anesthesia. The incidence of new PNI in a Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient surgical population has not been previously described; therefore, the incidence, risk factors, and clinical course of new PNI in this cohort are unknown. We hypothesized that peripheral nerve blocks do not increase PNI incidence. ⋯ The incidence of new perioperative PNI for VA surgical inpatients is 1.2% and the use of peripheral nerve blocks is not an independent risk factor.
-
Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2019
Efficacy of the ketamine metabolite (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine in mice models of pain.
Ketamine has been shown to reduce chronic pain; however, the adverse events associated with ketamine makes it challenging for use outside of the perioperative setting. The ketamine metabolite (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine ((2R,6R)-HNK) has a therapeutic effect in mice models of depression, with minimal side effects. The objective of this study is to determine if (2R,6R)-HNK has efficacy in both acute and chronic mouse pain models. ⋯ This study demonstrates that (2R,6R)-HNK is superior to ketamine in reducing mechanical allodynia in acute and chronic pain models and suggests it may be a new non-opioid drug for future therapeutic studies.