Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Review Meta Analysis
Interventional Procedures for Chronic Pain in Children and Adolescents: A Review of the Current Evidence.
This review discusses the role of interventional procedures in the treatment of chronic pain in children and adolescents. Due to lack of scientific evidence, significant controversy surrounds the utility of invasive techniques for managing pediatric chronic pain states. ⋯ The use of such techniques in children is supported only by case reports, case series, and very few randomized controlled studies. In addition, the potential for severe complications leaves open a debate on the safety of these invasive procedures, which must be confirmed by more extensive and accurate prospective studies.
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Pain is the hallmark symptom of sickle cell disease (SCD), yet the types of pain that these patients experience, and the underlying mechanisms, have not been well characterized. The study purpose was to determine the safety and utility of a mechanical and thermal quantitative sensory testing (QST) protocol and the feasibility of utilizing neuropathic pain questionnaires among adults with SCD. ⋯ The QST protocol can be safely conducted in adults with SCD and provides evidence of central or peripheral sensitization, which is consistent with a neuropathic component to SCD pain. These findings are novel, warrant a larger confirmatory study, and indicate the need for normative QST data from African American adults and older adults.
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Case Reports
Dynamic Mechanical Allodynia-One Clinical Sign, Several Mechanisms: Five Illustrative Cases.
Pain evoked by tangential movement across the skin is usually defined as dynamic mechanical allodynia (DMA). Some patients complain of DMA as troublesome as spontaneous pain and refer a marked interfering with activities of daily living and sleep. ⋯ Five exemplificative clinical cases of DMA are presented, each associated to a possible specific mechanism: injured skin DMA, peri-injured skin DMA, far injury DMA, nerve-confined DMA and fear DMA (pseudo allodynia). The identification of these subcategories of DMA can stimulate further studies aimed at evaluating the usefulness of a mechanism-based therapy for the different clinical forms of DMA.
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Review Meta Analysis
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Fibromyalgia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a prevalent chronic pain syndrome with few effective therapeutic options available. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an emerging therapeutic alternative for this condition; however, results have been mixed. ⋯ In comparison with sham stimulation, rTMS demonstrated superior effect on the QoL of patients with FM 1 month after starting therapy. However, further studies are needed to determine optimal treatment protocols and to elucidate the mechanisms involved with this effect, which does not seem to be mediated by changes in depression, but that may involve pain modulation. Level of evidence 1b.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Buprenorphine Transdermal System Improves Sleep Quality and Reduces Sleep Disturbance in Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Chronic Low Back Pain: Results from Two Randomized Controlled Trials.
To evaluate the impact of buprenorphine (Butrans®) transdermal System (BTDS) treatment on sleep outcomes for patients with moderate-to-severe chronic low back pain (CLBP). ⋯ Buprenorphine Transdermal System improved sleep quality and disturbance for opioid-naïve and opioid-experienced patients with moderate-to-severe CLBP. Benefits of BTDS for these sleep outcomes emerged within 4 weeks and were maintained over the entire 12-week treatment period.