Pain physician
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Physicians in the United States have been affected by significant changes in the pattern(s) of medical practice evolving over the last several decades. These changes include new measures to 1) curb increasing costs, 2) increase access to patient care, 3) improve quality of healthcare, and 4) pay for prescription drugs. Escalating healthcare costs have focused concerns about the financial solvency of Medicare and this in turn has fostered a renewed interest in the economic basis of interventional pain management practices. ⋯ Medicare cuts also impact other insurance payments, incurring a "ripple effect" such that many insurers will seek to pay at or around the Medicare rate. In this manuscript, we discuss universal healthcare systems, the CMS proposed ruling and its attendant ripple effect(s), historical aspects of the Medicare payment system, the Sustained Growth Rate system, and the potential consequences incurred by both proposed cuts and potential solutions to the discrepant cost-payment issue(s). As well, ethical issues of policy development upon the infrastructure and practice of interventional pain management are addressed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Acute cardiovascular effects of epidural spinal cord stimulation.
Several animal studies support the contention that thoracic spinal cord stimulation (SCS) might decrease arterial blood pressure. ⋯ This study demonstrated that SCS at either the T1-T2 or T5-T6 region did not significantly alter MAP or HR compared to baseline (no SCS). However, during transcient stress (elevated sympathetic tone) induced by CPT, there was a significant increase in MAP and moderate decrease in HR during SCS at T5-T6 region, which is not consistent with previous data in the literature. Acute SCS did not result in adverse cardiovascular responses and proved to be safe.
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Case Reports
Priapism--a rare complication following continuous epidural morphine and bupivacaine infusion.
Intraspinal drug delivery (IDD) therapy has been increasingly used in patients with intractable, nonmalignant pain who fail to respond to conventional treatment or can not tolerate systemic opioid therapy due to side effects. By infusing a small amount of analgesics directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in close proximity to the receptor sites in the spinal cord, one is able to achieve the spinally mediated analgesia, sparing side effects ffrom systemic opioids. Prior to permanent intraspinal pump implantation, an intraspinal opioid screening trial is required to document the efficacy of intraspinal opioid for analgesia. Although there are a few approaches in conducting such screening trials, a patient-controlled continuous epidural morphine infusion trial, performed in an outpatient setting, is widely accepted by many interventional pain specialists. The major advantage of conducting an outpatient functional opioid infusion trial versus an inpatient trial is that it more closely mimics what the patient does in his or her usual activities of daily living, therefore minimizing the false positive rate of the inpatient screening trial. ⋯ Priapism may occur as a rare complication following epidural morphine administration. This report represents the third case report thus far in the literature revealing priapism induced by epidural morphine administration, yet, it is the only report, to our knowledge, describing priapism occurring in a patient undergoing an outpatient epidural morphine and bupivacaine infusion trial. We believe that epidural morphine, rather than bupivacaine, is responsible for causing priapism in this patient, through a yet to be defined spinal mechanism.
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Case Reports
Dural puncture and subdural injection: a complication of lumbar transforaminal epidural injections.
Two cases are presented in which the complication of dural puncture is documented in the context of a lumbar transforaminal epidural steroid injection. The hazard of dural puncture during transforaminal epidural injections, the anatomy of the dural and thecal sac, the potential for subdural injections, and relevant literature are reviewed. ⋯ Subdural and intrathecal spread of contrast is rarely seen with transforaminal injections and thus can be easily overlooked. Becoming familiar with the images presented in these cases may help alert the interventionalist of a dural puncture, and thus avoid injection of medications into the intrathecal and subdural spaces.
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Clinical Trial
Transsacrococcygeal approach to ganglion impar block for management of chronic perineal pain: a prospective observational study.
The ganglion impar or ganglion of Walther is a solitary retroperitoneal structure at the level of sacrococcygeal junction. It provides the nociceptive and sympathetic supply to the perineal structures. Chronic Perineal Pain (CPP) has been effectively managed by ganglion impar block. In this study we analyze the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of ganglion impar block by transsacrococcygeal approach. ⋯ A transsacrococcygeal approach for a ganglion impar block is a technically feasible and safe technique. We recommend this technique for neurolysis or radiofrequency ablation of the ganglion impar and for diagnostic blocks, especially when the diagnosis and further plan of management is dependent on the response of the diagnostic block.