Pain physician
-
Observational Study
Radiologic Analysis and Clinical Study of the Upper One-third Joint Technique for Fluoroscopically Guided Sacroiliac Joint Injection.
Sacroiliac intraarticular injection by the traditional technique can be challenging to perform when the joint is covered with osteophytes or is extremely narrow. ⋯ Sacroiliac intraarticular injections with the upper one-third joint technique are advisable when it is hard to perform them with the lower one-third joint technique.
-
Corticosteroid injection has a wide range of success in adhesive capsulitis but the reason for this has not yet been explained. We hypothesized that this difference might be due to the distribution of the corticosteroids injected into the joint cavity because particulate steroid deposits in the capsule and will not be moved over time by shoulder motion. ⋯ External rotation of the shoulder in adhesive capsulitis has greater improvement as the corticosteroid solutions injected into the glenohumeral joint are increasingly dispersed to the subscapularis area. However, this does not affect the pain improvement after the injection.
-
Despite the various modalities available for treating headaches, typical therapy does not provide adequate pain relief for some patients. ⋯ PNS is an effective modality in the long-term management of intractable chronic headaches. Despite long histories of chronic headaches, the majority of patients had significant reductions in pain scores and the number of headache days per month. The outcomes were not dependent on the number of years the patients had suffered from headaches before PNS treatment.
-
The safety of neuraxial anesthetic techniques in the setting of oral and parenteral anticoagulation is an area of growing interest and clinical inquiry as the multitude of anticoagulant medications rapidly increases. Additionally, the indications for spinal cord stimulation therapy are evolving as both technique and technology in the field continue to advance. The estimated incidence of spinal hematoma following epidural injection has been estimated to be 1 in 150,000-200,000. ⋯ We would like to report a recent case for consideration in which a spinal cord stimulator trial was successful and led to permanent spinal cord stimulator implantation in a patient with diabetic peripheral neuropathy taking life-long aspirin and clopidogrel therapy secondary to extensive coronary and carotid atherosclerosis. The report serves as a novel case to encourage exploration into the topic of anticoagulation therapy with indwelling spinal cord stimulator leads. The case brings up a number of critical questions that cannot clearly be answered with the current literature and some interesting topics for discussion including the need for acute systemic anticoagulation in the future for vascular interventions and risk stratification for those patients selected for spinal cord stimulation.
-
Genicular nerve block has recently emerged as a novel alternative treatment in chronic knee pain. The needle placement for genicular nerve injection is made under fluoroscopic guidance with reference to bony landmarks. ⋯ The result of this cadaveric study suggests that ultrasound-guided medial genicular nerve branch block can be performed accurately using the above-stated anatomic landmarks.