Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Sep 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialClonidine premedication reduces maternal requirement for intravenous morphine after cesarean delivery without affecting newborn's outcome.
The alpha(2)-agonist clonidine has several benefits for patients undergoing surgery. During and after elective cesarean delivery (C-section), we assessed the condition of parturient and neonate when one half of the parturients were pretreated with oral clonidine. ⋯ The present results indicate that oral clonidine reduces the PCA morphine requirement after C-section without compromising the condition of the fetus or newborn. Further study including larger number of patients would be needed before we conclude that oral clonidine for parturients is safe for their newborns.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialBuprenorphine added to the local anesthetic for brachial plexus block to provide postoperative analgesia in outpatients.
Over the past 10 years, several studies have suggested that the addition of certain opiates to the local anesthetic used for brachial block may provide effective, long-lasting postoperative analgesia. One of these studies indicated that the agonist-antagonist, buprenorphine, added to bupivacaine provided a longer period of postoperative analgesia than the traditional opiates, but in this study, it is impossible to determine the relative contributions of the local anesthetic and the opiate to the postoperative analgesia because of the extremely long duration of the anesthesia provided by the local anesthetic, bupivacaine. By repeating the study using a local anesthetic of a shorter duration, the present study delineates more clearly the contribution of the buprenorphine to postoperative analgesia when added to a shorter-acting local anesthetic. ⋯ The addition of buprenorphine to the local anesthetic used for brachial plexus block in the present study provided a 3-fold increase in the duration of postoperative analgesia, with complete analgesia persisting 30 hours beyond the duration provided by the local anesthetic alone in 75% of the patients. This practice can be of particular benefit to patients undergoing ambulatory upper extremity surgery by providing prolonged analgesia after discharge from the hospital.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialEffects of gabapentin in acute inflammatory pain in humans.
The aim of the study was to examine the analgesic effects of the anticonvulsant, gabapentin, in a validated model of acute inflammatory pain. ⋯ The study indicates that gabapentin has no analgesic effect in normal skin, but may reduce primary mechanical allodynia in acute inflammation following a thermal injury. These observations suggest a clinical potential of gabapentin in the treatment of postoperative pain.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialRandomized prospective study comparing preoperative epidural and intraoperative perineural analgesia for the prevention of postoperative stump and phantom limb pain following major amputation.
Acute stump pain and phantom limb pain after amputation is a significant problem among amputees with a reported incidence of phantom limb pain in the first year following amputation as high as 70%. Epidural analgesia before limb amputation is commonly used to reduce postamputation acute stump pain in the immediate postoperative period and phantom pain in the first year. We investigated whether immediate postamputation stump pain and phantom pain in the first year is reduced by preoperative epidural block with bupivacaine and diamorphine compared with intraoperative placement of a perineural catheter infusing bupivacaine. ⋯ Using our regimen, perioperative epidural block started 24 hours before the amputation is not superior to infusion of local anaesthetic via a perineural catheter in preventing phantom pain, but gives better relief of stump pain in the immediate postoperative period.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jul 2001
Case ReportsRepeated psoas compartment blocks for the management of long-standing hip pain.
The psoas compartment block is used to produce analgesia of the lumbar plexus mainly for hip and knee surgery. It has also been used for the management of a long-standing pain due to hip joint degeneration. ⋯ We successfully performed repeated psoas compartment blocks with a local anesthetic and subsequently with added opioids, which produced substantial pain relief, especially after the addition of opioids.