Articles: pain-management-methods.
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Chronic cancer pain is often refractory and difficult to treat. Ketamine is a medication with evidence of efficacy in the treatment of chronic pain. ⋯ Despite limitations in the breadth and depth of data available, there is evidence that ketamine may be a viable option for treatment-refractory cancer pain.
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Inflammopharmacology · Oct 2013
ReviewPathobiology and management of prostate cancer-induced bone pain: recent insights and future treatments.
Prostate cancer (PCa) has a high propensity for metastasis to bone. Despite the availability of multiple treatment options for relief of PCa-induced bone pain (PCIBP), satisfactory relief of intractable pain in patients with advanced bony metastases is challenging for the clinicians because currently available analgesic drugs are often limited by poor efficacy and/or dose-limiting side effects. Rodent models developed in the past decade show that the pathobiology of PCIBP comprises elements of inflammatory, neuropathic and ischemic pain arising from ectopic sprouting and sensitization of sensory nerve fibres within PCa-invaded bones. ⋯ Thus, it has been difficult to gain insight into the mal(adaptive) neuroplastic changes occurring at multiple levels of the somatosensory system that likely contribute to intractable pain at the advanced stages of metastatic disease. Specifically, the functional responsiveness of noxious circuitry as well as the neurochemical signature of a broad array of pro-hyperalgesic mediators in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord of rodent models of PCIBP is relatively poorly characterized. Hence, recent work from our laboratory to develop a protocol for an optimized rat model of PCIBP will enable these knowledge gaps to be addressed as well as identification of novel targets for drug discovery programs aimed at producing new analgesics for the improved relief of intractable PCIBP.
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In this narrative review, we aim to provide the pathophysiology and diagnostic criteria of the piriformis syndrome (PS), an underdiagnosed cause of buttock and leg pain that can be difficult to treat. Based on existing evidence, frequencies of clinical features are estimated in patients reported to have PS. In view of the increasing popularity of ultrasound for intervention, the ultrasound-guided technique in the treatment of PS is described in detail. ⋯ Piriformis syndrome continues to be a controversial diagnosis for sciatic pain. Electrophysiological testing and nerve blocks play important roles when the diagnosis is uncertain. Injection of local anesthetics, steroids, and botulinum toxin into the piriformis muscle can serve both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. An ultrasound-guided injection technique offers improved accuracy in locating the piriformis muscle. Optimizing the therapeutic approach requires an interdisciplinary evaluation of treatment.
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Both chronic and acute pain have been cited as the most common symptoms amongst patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), with recent prevalence estimates as high as 83 %. The evidence for spasticity and trigeminal neuralgia pharmacological treatments in MS has been systematically reviewed, but no equivalent reviews have been published concerning MS pain unrelated to these two conditions. ⋯ More trials with rigorous design and reporting are needed to determine effective treatments for specific pain types presenting in people living with MS.