Pain physician
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The spine, pelvis, skull, and femur are the most common sites of bone metastases, and pain is the main symptom of metastatic tumors. Percutaneous femoroplasty (PFP) is becoming increasingly popular for treating proximal femoral metastases. ⋯ Use of CT-guided PFP was associated with a low risk of complications and improvement in patients' quality of life. CT guidance made the operation easy and safe, and thus, this approach represents a potential treatment option for proximal femoral metastases if indications are observed closely.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Iliocostalis Thoracis-Lumborum Myofascial Pain: Reviewing a Subgroup of a Prospective, Randomized, Blinded Trial. A Challenging Diagnosis with Clinical Implications.
Pain of myofascial origin is a well-recognized pathology characterized by the presence of two components: referred pain; which is often distant from its source and specific to each muscle, and the trigger point, a localized hyperirritable band present in the affected muscle and able to reproduce the referred pain when stimulated. Myofascial pain (MP) commonly coexists in patients with acute or chronic pain of other etiologies. The uniqueness of the clinical presentation of some MPs and the lack of training of most specialties represent a clinical challenge. Thus, many patients with MPS receive less than optimal management of this condition. ⋯ Anterior torso pain often resulted in extensive workups before ITL myofascial pain was diagnosed. TP injections were diagnostic and therapeutic of ITL myofascial pain.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Intrathecal Dexmedetomidine, Ketamine, and their Combination Added to Bupivacaine for Postoperative Analgesia in Major Abdominal Cancer Surgery.
Intrathecal ketamine has been studied extensively in animals, but rarely in humans. Intrathecal dexmedetomidine prolongs the duration of spinal anesthesia. ⋯ In conclusion, the combination of intrathecal dexmedetomidine and ketamine provided superior postoperative analgesia, prolonged the time to first request of rescue analgesia, and reduced the total consumption of PCA morphine, without serious side effects compared to either drug alone.
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Review Meta Analysis
Particulate vs Non-Particulate Steroids for Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Current Literature.
The efficacy of particulate and non-particulate steroids in patients receiving epidural steroid injections remains unclear. ⋯ As the use of particulate steroids seems to be associated with slightly better VAS scores only, clinicians need to weigh their clinical relevance in the light of complications and recent FDA recommendations on the use of particulate steroids.