Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2012
American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine 2010 Gaston Labat Lecture: Perineural catheter analgesia as a routine method after ambulatory surgery--effective but unrealistic.
Adequate postoperative analgesia is a prerequisite for successful ambulatory surgery and remains a challenge. The problem of pain at home may be increasing because previously inpatient surgical procedures are becoming ambulatory and it is expected that the number and complexity of ambulatory surgical procedures will continue to increase. In 1998, we described the use of surgical-site and perineural catheter techniques that allowed patients to self-administer local anesthetics through disposable, elastomeric pumps for pain management at home. ⋯ Surgical-site catheter technique is a simpler, safer, and less expensive alternative and therefore more likely to gain widespread use. Only controlled comparisons can show whether the current belief about the superiority of ambulatory perineural techniques over WCI is justified. Such studies should address technical failures, side effects, home care of the medically unsupervised or undersupervised patient, and cost-effectiveness to demonstrate which of the 2 techniques is most appropriate for a particular procedure.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialA translational study of the effects of ketamine and pregabalin on temporal summation of experimental pain.
Central sensitization is often seen in chronic pain. A relevant and potent mechanism of central sensitization is the central integration of nociceptive impulses. Temporal summation in humans and the wind-up process in animals share common features of central integration. This preclinical and clinical translational study investigated the effect of ketamine and pregabalin on temporal summation (TS) and wind-up of wide dynamic range (WDR) neurons of nociceptive electrical stimuli in healthy volunteers and rats. ⋯ It was shown that TS shares common features with wind-up of WDR neurons and that pregabalin does not affect this component of central sensitization.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Nov 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyLumbar transforaminal epidural dexamethasone: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, dose-response trial.
Serious adverse events related to particulate steroids have curtailed the use of transforaminal epidural steroid injections for radicular pain. Dexamethasone has been proposed as an alternative. We investigated the efficacy, dose-response profile, and safety of 3 doses of epidural dexamethasone. ⋯ Transforaminal epidural dexamethasone provides statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in radicular pain at 12 weeks after injection, with parallel improvements in disability, impression of change, and satisfaction measures. There was no difference in efficacy for dexamethasone 4 mg compared with 8 or 12 mg. The optimal dose of epidural dexamethasone may be lower than 4 mg, further increasing the long-term safety and tolerability of this treatment. Current data are reassuring with regard to the safety of dexamethasone for transforaminal epidural steroid injection.