Pain practice : the official journal of World Institute of Pain
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Patients with thoracic neuropathic pain often do not respond to medication and physical therapy. Coblation technology has been demonstrated to have potential for pain management. ⋯ Percutaneous thoracic paravertebral nerve coblation guided by computed tomography is a potential method for the treatment of thoracic neuropathic pain.
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There are currently limited data available on the patterns of opioid prescribing in Malaysia. This study investigated the patterns of opioid prescribing and characterized the dosing and duration of opioid use in patients with noncancer and cancer pain. ⋯ The finding from this study showed that 41.5% of opioid users at an outpatient hospital setting in Malaysia received opioids for noncancer pain and 21.8% of these users were using opioids for longer than 90 days. The average daily dose in the majority of patients in both groups of noncancer and cancer was modest.
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Multicenter Study
Translation and Validation of the Thai Version of a Modified Brief Pain Inventory: a Concise Instrument for Pain Assessment in Postoperative Cardiac Surgery.
Acute pain after cardiac surgery can be assessed using validated instruments such as the modified interference subscale of the Brief Pain Inventory (mod-BPI). Despite the available knowledge, the Thai version of a mod-BPI has not yet been presented. ⋯ The BPI-T is a concise instrument for pain assessment in postoperative cardiac surgery.
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Dexmedetomidine is an upcoming agent with sedative, anxiolytic, and analgesic properties. This review summarizes empirical evidence for the efficacy of dexmedetomidine as a sole sedative agent, and its effectiveness for small diagnostic and therapeutic procedure, in comparison with other frequently used sedatives. All randomized controlled trials on the effect of dexmedetomidine were reviewed. ⋯ In the adult studies, dexmedetomidine yielded significantly lower pain levels compared to the other sedatives (in 31.25% of the included studies) and significantly more patient satisfaction (68.2%). In studies on children, more favorable results concerning respiratory safety and the level of adequate sedation were found compared to the control sedatives. Implications for future studies are discussed.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Percutaneous Cervical Nucleoplasty Versus Pulsed Radio Frequency of the Dorsal Root Ganglion in Patients with Contained Cervical Disc Herniation; A Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial.
Cervical neck pain is often caused by cervical disk pathology and may cause severe symptoms and disability. Surgeons and patients are increasingly aware of postsurgery-related complications. This stimulated the clinical usage of minimally invasive treatments such as percutaneous nucleoplasty (PCN) and pulsed radio frequency (PRF). However, scientific evidence on both treatments is limited. ⋯ Within 3 months, both PCN and PRF show significant pain improvement in patients with contained cervical disk herniation, but none is superior to the other. Both treatment options appear to be effective and safe in regular clinical practice.