Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Dec 2023
Review Case ReportsUltrasound-guided spinal anesthesia in infants: a narrative review.
Infant spinal anesthesia has many potential benefits. However, the delivery of infant spinal anesthesia is technically challenging. The landmark-based technique has not changed for over a century. Advancements in ultrasound technology may provide an opportunity to improve infant spinal procedures. ⋯ Ultrasound yields high-quality images of the infant spine. Most literature regarding ultrasound for infant spinal procedures arises from emergency medicine or interventional radiology specialties. The literature on ultrasound for infant spinal anesthesia is extremely limited, but shows promise. Future studies are needed in order to determine whether ultrasound can improve the success rate for delivery of infant spinal anesthesia.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2023
ReviewAssociation between perioperative neuraxial local anesthetic neurotoxicity and arachnoiditis: a narrative review of published reports.
Arachnoiditis is a rare but devastating disorder caused by various insults, one of which is purported to be local anesthetic neurotoxicity following neuraxial blockade. However, the relationship between local anesthetics administered into the neuraxis and the development of arachnoiditis has not been clearly elucidated. ⋯ The existing literature attributing arachnoiditis to local anesthetic neurotoxicity is largely outdated, incomplete, and/or confounded by other potential causes, and thus insufficient to characterize the features and strength of any association.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2023
ReviewEvaluating the balance of benefits and harms in chronic pain clinical trials: prioritizing individual participants over individual outcomes.
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) generally assess efficacy and safety separately, with the conclusion of whether a treatment is beneficial based solely on the efficacy endpoint. However, assessing and combining efficacy and safety domains, using a single composite outcome measure, can provide a more comprehensive assessment of the overall effect of a treatment. Furthermore, composite outcomes can incorporate information regarding the relationship between the individual outcomes. In fact, such outcomes have been suggested in the clinical trials literature for at least 15 years. ⋯ Composite outcomes of benefits and harms are underutilized in chronic pain RCTs. The advantages and challenges of using such outcomes are discussed.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2023
ReviewNeurological injury following peripheral nerve blocks: a narrative review of estimates of risks and the influence of ultrasound guidance.
Peripheral nerve injury or post-block neurological dysfunction (PBND) are uncommon but a recognized complications of peripheral nerve blocks (PNB). A broad range of its incidence is noted in the literature and hence a critical appraisal of its occurrence is needed. ⋯ Our review adds information to existing literature that the neurological complications are rarer but seem to display a higher incidence for some blocks more than others. Use of US guidance may be associated with a lower incidence of PBND especially in those PNBs reporting a higher pooled estimates. Future studies need to standardize the reporting of PBND at various timepoints and its association to PNB.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2023
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.