Pain physician
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Observational Study
Identification of Preoperative Serum Metabolites Associated With Postoperative Opioid Consumption in Gastric Cancer Patients by Extreme Phenotype Sampling.
Postoperative pain increases patients' risk and opioids remain the main analgesics to relieve it. However, improper use of opioids causes many side effects and identification of suitable preoperative biomarkers that predict postoperative opioid consumption may aid clinicians in improving analgesic strategies for patients. The activity of metabolites modulates multiple phenotypes and can function as biomarkers for disease prediction and diagnosis. ⋯ Preoperative serum metabolites were associated with postoperative opioid consumption. Different efficiencies of histamine degradation may be one cause of the variable sensitivity of patients to acute pain and warrants further study.
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The Gasserian ganglion (GG) is the primary neuronal aggregation area of the trigeminal nervous system and the epidural structure outside the central nervous system, thus, it has become the most commonly used target for minimally invasive treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Whether it is the classic trigeminal radiofrequency treatment or GG balloon compression therapy, the intervention target is the GG. The anatomy and imaging anatomy of the GG of the trigeminal nerve is of great importance in the minimally invasive treatment of TN. ⋯ Based on the anatomical structure and position of the trigeminal nerve, it is difficult to achieve highly selective branch treatment of TN with radiofrequency in the GG. For the treatment of TN with percutaneous microballoon compression on the GG, the balloon catheter should be placed in Meckel's cave. While it is not easy to insert into Meckel's cave, the depth of the balloon catheter should be that the distal end is flush with the top of the temporal bone petrous cone.
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The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a shift to a video format for pain medicine fellowship interviews for the 2021-2022 academic year, which represented a major change in the fellowship interview paradigm. ⋯ The video format for pain medicine fellowship interviews was viewed positively by both candidates and program directors. We suspect that the video format alone or as a part of a hybrid model will become a routine method for the interview process in the future, given its time and cost benefits.
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Observational Study
Predicting Epidural Space Spread Using Ultrasound Color Doppler Imaging in Interlaminar Epidural Steroid Injection: A Prospective Observational Study.
While the use of fluoroscopy-guided transforaminal epidural steroid injection (TFESI) to help spread the injectate toward the ventral side has increased, this procedure has a radiation risk. Recently, ultrasound has been widely used in the medical field; among ultrasound methods, color Doppler is useful for predicting the direction of the injectate. ⋯ The main advantage of ultrasound-guided ILESI is the lack of radiation exposure and contrast medium requirement. Color Doppler may be a reliable imaging modality to predict epidural space spread during ultrasound-guided ILESI. It is worth predicting the spread in the anterior epidural space (AES) by first attempting ultrasound-guided ESI. If the injectate has not spread to the AES, fluoroscopy-guided TFESI may be a good option after confirming improvement of the patient's symptoms.