Current pain and headache reports
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With an increased knowledge of neural anatomy and technologic improvement, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) became an often-used technique for the pain control over an extended time period. Today, RFA is used safely for spinal pains of facet or discogenic origin, sympathetically maintained pain, and other pains of neural origin.
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Daily or near-daily headache is a widespread problem in clinical practice. The general term of chronic daily headache (CDH) encompasses those primary headaches presenting more than 15 days per month and lasting more than 4 hours per day. CDH includes transformed migraine (TM), chronic tension-type headache (CTTH), new daily persistent headache (NDPH), and hemicrania continua (HC). ⋯ Regarding the prevalence of CDH subtypes, NDPH is rare (0.1%), whereas the prevalence of TM (1.5% to 2%) and CTTH (2.5% to 3%) is clearly higher. In contrast to data from specialized clinics, only around a quarter of CDH subjects in the general population overuse analgesics; the prevalence of CDH subjects with analgesic overuse being 1.1% to 1.9% of the general population. Most of these patients with analgesic overuse are TM patients.
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Curr Pain Headache Rep · Dec 2001
ReviewAnalgesic/abortive overuse and misuse in chronic daily headache.
The frequent use (> 15 times/month) of medication for the treatment of acute migraine attacks may cause medication overuse headache. This kind of headache can be caused by the intake of combination analgesics, opioids, ergot alkaloids, and triptans. The delay between first intake and daily headache is shortest for triptans (1 to 2 years), longer for ergots (3 years), and longest for analgesics (5 years). Treatment includes drug withdrawal followed by structured acute therapy and initiation of migraine prophylactic treatment.
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Clinicians currently base decisions regarding the use of intrathecal drug therapy for chronic pain on reports from uncontrolled and retrospective studies that fail to rely on standardized outcome measures. In this article, we summarize what is known about currently administered intrathecal therapies, including opioids, gamma-aminobutyric acid agonists, alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonists, local anesthetics (sodium channel antagonists), calcium channel antagonists, miscellaneous agents, and drug combination therapy. In addition, we offer a brief look at novel approaches that may revolutionize intrathecal drug delivery.
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Although possessing a long history of use, the therapeutic use of epidural steroid injections still needs substantiation. Refinements in our understanding of the pathophysiology of radicular pain and in the techniques used to deliver depo-steroids to the target tissue will lead to improved clinical outcomes and fewer technique and drug-related side effects. Administration of epidural steroids at lumbar spine sites is more common than at cervical spine levels, although the same pain management concepts are applicable. Comparative studies are necessary to clearly define the advantages and disadvantages of the use of fluoroscopy and the transforaminal technique.