Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2024
Case ReportsParasagittal needle placement approach for lumbar medial branch denervation: a brief technical report.
Radiofrequency denervation of lumbar medial branches is a viable treatment option to manage chronic facetogenic low back pain. Traditionally, lumbar medial branch denervation involves placement of the electrode's active tip at a 20-degree angulation away from the parasagittal plane. ⋯ Currently, there is a lack of clinical data on the effectiveness of the alternative parasagittal needle placement technique. Therefore, in this brief technical report, the parasagittal needle placement technique and the pain relief outcomes in four consecutive patients following treatment with the parasagittal approach are described.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2024
ReviewIntegrating mechanistic-based and classification-based concepts into perioperative pain management: an educational guide for acute pain physicians.
Chronic pain begins with acute pain. Physicians tend to classify pain by duration (acute vs chronic) and mechanism (nociceptive, neuropathic and nociplastic). Although this taxonomy may facilitate diagnosis and documentation, such categories are to some degree arbitrary constructs, with significant overlap in terms of mechanisms and treatments. ⋯ For example, in perioperative pain management, enhanced recovery protocols are not standardized and tend to drive treatment without consideration of mechanisms, which in many cases may be incongruent with personalized medicine and mechanism-based treatment. In this educational document, we discuss mechanisms and classification of pain as it pertains to commonly performed surgical procedures. Our goal is to provide a clinical reference for the acute pain physician to facilitate pain management decision-making (both diagnosis and therapy) in the perioperative period.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2024
ReviewPerioperative opioid prescribing and iatrogenic opioid use disorder and overdose: a state-of-the-art narrative review.
Considerable attention has been paid to identifying and mitigating perioperative opioid-related harms. However, rates of postsurgical opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose, along with associated risk factors, have not been clearly defined. ⋯ Retrospective data suggest an incidence of new postoperative OUD and overdose of up to 0.8% during the first year after surgery, but prospective studies are lacking.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2024
ReviewDebunking myths in headache diagnosis for the pain practitioner.
With headache being one of the most common chief complaints, it is essential for pain practitioners to interpret and differentiate a variety of headache characteristics to accurately diagnose and treat specific headache disorders. Certain misconceptions often lead to misdiagnosis. ⋯ The discussion is based primarily on the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition and the latest studies. Recognizing and understanding the intricacies behind key headache diagnoses will help providers devise appropriate plans to better care for their patients.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2024
Innervation of thumb carpometacarpal joint: implications for diagnostic block and denervation procedures.
Osteoarthritis (OA) of the thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) joint is a common disorder that negatively impacts hand function. Denervation of the thumb CMC joint has emerged as a viable treatment option. However, the innervation pattern of the thumb CMC joint is controversial. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the articular branches supplying the thumb CMC joint and to document their relationship to anatomical landmarks to provide the foundation for image-guided diagnostic block and denervation procedures. ⋯ The thumb CMC joint was innervated by articular branches originating from the SBRN, DAN, LACN, PCBMN, TBMN and DBUN. The documented anatomical relationships provide the foundation to inform selective diagnostic block and denervation of the thumb CMC joint. Further investigations are needed to assess the clinical implications of the current study.