Pain physician
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Perceived injustice (PI) is a multidimensional appraisal cognition comprising the severity of loss consequent to injury, blame, a sense of unfairness, and/or irreparability of loss. PI gained increasing interest in pain research since it potentially contributes to the experience and burden of (chronic) pain. ⋯ The prevalence of PI was >= 33% in 75% of the studies indicating that PI is important to consider in people with pain. There is evidence for the association of PI with psychological, pain, and quality of life characteristics in people with pain. The associations of PI with personal, injury, and recovery characteristics were overall not significant or negligible.
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Meta Analysis
Radiofrequency Therapies for Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Systematic Review and Updated Meta-analysis.
Conventional radiofrequency (CRF), pulsed radiofrequency (PRF), and pulsed com-bined conventional radiofrequency (PCRF) are widely used in the clinical treatment of trigeminal neuralgia (TN), collective evidence comparing the efficacy and safety of these radiofrequency therapies is still controversial. ⋯ PCRF provides better long-term efficacy and fewer adverse effects for treating TN. Yet, it is hard to draw definitive conclusions about excellent pain relief comparisons due to the moderate quality of evidence, high heterogeneity, and scarcity of available data.
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Cervical epidural steroid injection (ESI) has been used to alleviate axial or radicular pain incurred from various cervical pathologies, including herniated intervertebral disc (HIVD) and spinal stenosis (SS). However, the superiority of the transforaminal ESI (TFESI) method over the interlaminar ESI (ILESI) in terms of clinical effectiveness for the radicular pain is still controversial. ⋯ Comprehensive reviews of selected articles revealed TFESI could not be recommended over ILESI for the sake of a preferential cervical radiculopathy control due to the weak evidential strength.
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Meta Analysis
Efficacy of Nalbuphine as a Local Anesthetic Adjuvant for Brachial Plexus Block: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Nalbuphine has been increasingly used as a local anesthetic adjuvant to extend the duration of analgesia in brachial plexus block (BPB). ⋯ Perineural use of nalbuphine in BPB is an effective strategy for analgesia in adult patients undergoing upper extremity surgery.
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Amputees commonly feel an intermittent tingling, piercing, or burning sensation in the region of the missing portion of the amputated limb, a phenomenon known as phantom limb pain. Current treatment modalities include medications, mirror therapy, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and more recently neuromodulation through spinal cord stimulation and dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation. ⋯ The cumulative evidence at present suggests DRG stimulation may be a potentially effective treatment for phantom limb pain, however, a powered prospective randomized controlled trial is needed to assess the long-term benefits of this treatment modality. Given the increasing population of military veterans who are living with limb amputations, finding a modality for adequate long-term pain control is crucial.