Journal of pain research
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2019
Therapeutic Efficacy and the Impact of the "Dose" Effect of Acupuncture to Treat Sciatica: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.
To investigate the required sample size for and feasibility of a full-scale randomized controlled trial examining the impact of the "dose" effect of acupuncture in treating sciatica. ⋯ Results of this pilot study indicate that acupuncture is safe and may effectively relieve symptoms and disability in patients with non-acute sciatica. MAL was as effective as MAH in treating sciatica. A subsequent trial with a larger sample size (estimated at n=96) is required to confirm whether patients with a high level of chronicity would benefit from MAH treatment.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2019
Preoperative ultrasound-guided multilevel paravertebral blocks reduce the incidence of postmastectomy chronic pain: a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial.
Chronic postsurgical pain is a challenging problem after breast cancer surgery. This prospective, randomized, double-blinded, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the influence of preoperative ultrasound-guided multilevel paravertebral blocks (PVBs) on chronic pain following mastectomy. ⋯ This study indicated that perioperative ultrasound-guided multilevel PVBs with ropivacaine improved acute postoperative pain and decreased postmastectomy chronic pain at 3 and 6 months postoperatively.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2019
ReviewTapentadol in the management of cancer pain: current evidence and future perspectives.
Thanks to the progress in early diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the life expectancy of cancer patients has now increased. Patients are, therefore, more likely to experience their individual cancer pain as a chronic pain. As a consequence, long-term treatment of cancer-related pain and oncological therapy-related pain are a major need for all patients and a challenge to all healthcare professionals. ⋯ In randomized, double-blind and active-controlled trials it proved non-inferior to standard opioids like morphine or oxycodone in the management of moderate-to-severe cancer pain, both in opioid-naive and in opioid-pretreated patients. The good analgesic efficacy may be partly due to the action of tapentadol on neuropathic pain components. Together with the low rate of gastrointestinal adverse effects and the overall favorable safety profile, tapentadol can be considered a good option in cancer pain patients, who can suffer frequently from nausea, vomiting, constipation or other events that further reduce their quality of life.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2019
ReviewTapentadol in the treatment of osteoarthritis: pharmacological rationale and clinical evidence.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent joint disease in older people worldwide. Pain owing to OA is considered one of the most frequent causes of chronic pain; however, current pharmacological approaches have some limitations in terms of efficacy and safety. ⋯ Tapentadol is an analgesic molecule, which combines two synergistic mechanisms of action, MOR, and norepinephrine reuptake inhibition. This narrative review will briefly discuss the mechanisms contributing to the onset and maintenance of pain in OA patients; clinical data on the use of tapentadol in this setting will then be presented and commented.
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Journal of pain research · Jan 2019
Hyperbaric oxygen relieves neuropathic pain through AKT/TSC2/mTOR pathway activity to induce autophagy.
Our previous study suggested that HBO treatment attenuated neuropathic pain by inhibiting mTOR to induce autophagy in SNL neuropathic pain model. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of AKT/TSC2/mTOR pathway in SNL and autophagy and determine whether HBO treatment could relieve neuropathic pain via modulating AKT/TSC2/mTOR pathway. ⋯ Taken together, our findings demonstrated AKT/TSC2/mTOR pathway was activated in SNL-induced neuropathic pain, and HBO treatment attenuated neuropathic pain via neutralizing AKT/TSC2/mTOR pathway activation.