Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Specialists in pain medicine commonly experience psychological assaults on their self-esteem, especially from patients who seem unreasonably demanding, overly critical, or threatening. This article will discuss how these challenges can trigger a professional's self-protective and defensive coping mechanisms that, in turn, can provoke decidedly unempathic responses. ⋯ The first set will focus on certain pragmatics of empathy skill development. The second will discuss the Eastern notion of "bare attention" as an ideal form of empathic engagement that can also counteract an unhealthy degree of defensiveness when self-esteem is threatened.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Reduction of topical anesthetic onset time using ultrasound: a randomized controlled trial prior to venipuncture in young children.
Ultrasound treatment prior to topical anesthetic application has been shown to speed anesthesia onset by enhancing anesthetic penetration into the skin. ⋯ Ultrasound treatment speeds time of onset of liposomal lidocaine cream anesthesia in young children undergoing venipuncture. Side effects were mild in our population.
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Regional anesthesia simulation manikins with phantom skeletal structures are commercially available. Unfortunately, they are quite expensive. This article introduces our handmade, low cost, phantom for training of nerve block with fluoroscopic guidance. ⋯ Although it might lack radiographic fidelity, our inexpensive phantom can be used for basic training of nerve block with fluoroscopic guidance.
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Single-arm prospective clinical trial. ⋯ Targeted disc decompression provided moderate improvement in leg pain and function in the majority of patients with chronic radicular pain.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Defining patient-centered, multidimensional success criteria for treatment of chronic spine pain.
This study aimed to define patient-determined success criteria for treatment of chronic spine pain across four domains: pain, fatigue, emotional distress, and interference with daily activities. ⋯ Future research should validate these success criteria, particularly for the less studied domains of fatigue, distress, and interference, and investigate how these criteria evolve over the course of different treatments.