Articles: pain-management-methods.
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Pediatric emergency care · Jan 2019
ReviewKetamine Infusion for Pain Control in Acute Pediatric Sickle Cell Painful Crises.
Sickle cell disease is the most common hemoglobin variant in the world and can present with recurrent vaso-occlusive painful crises. Pain control in these patients is often difficult and requires a multimodal approach. In patients with uncontrolled pain after traditional pain control methods, ketamine infusions have proven beneficial. Unfortunately, no source alone had described ketamine infusions for pediatric sickle cell patients. Our objective was to provide a thorough definitive reference for health care providers regarding the use of ketamine infusion for pain control in pediatric sickle cell painful crises. ⋯ Ketamine infusions have shown promise in assisting physicians in appropriately treating pediatric sickle cell painful crises.
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Elective surgical pathways offer a particular opportunity to plan radical change in the way care is delivered, based on patient need rather than provider convenience. Peri-operative pathway redesign enables improved patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), population/public health, and healthcare value (outcome per unit of currency). Among physicians with the skills to work within peri-operative medicine, anaesthetists are well positioned to lead the re-engineering of such pathways. ⋯ Risk-adapted postoperative care, particularly around transitions of care, has a significant role in improving value through peri-operative medicine. Improved integration with primary care providers offers the potential for minimising errors around transitions of care before and after surgery, as well as maximising opportunities for population health interventions, including lifestyle modification (e.g. activity/exercise, smoking and/or alcohol cessation), pain management and sleep medicine. Systematic data collection focused on quality improvement is essential to drive continuous clinical improvement and will be enabled by technological development in predictive analytics, systems modelling and artificial intelligence.
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First isolated as cyanocobalamin in 1948, vitamin B12 has been explored for pain treatment almost since its discovery. With the advent of the opioid epidemic, safer treatments for pain are needed. ⋯ Vitamin B12, cyanocobalamin, methylcobalamin, hydroxycobalamin, pain, chronic pain, neuropathy, low back pain.
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Review
Non pharmacological treatment for neuropathic pain: Invasive and non-invasive cortical stimulation.
The use of medications in chronic neuropathic pain may be limited with regard to efficacy and tolerance. Therefore, non-pharmacological approaches, using electrical stimulation of the cortex has been proposed as an alternative. First, in the early nineties, surgically-implanted epidural motor cortex stimulation (EMCS) was proven to be effective to relieve refractory neuropathic pain. ⋯ The mechanism of action of tDCS differs from that of EMCS and rTMS, but the cortical target is the same, which is M1. Although the level of evidence of therapeutic efficacy in the context of neuropathic pain is lower for tDCS than for rTMS, interesting perspectives are opened by using at-home tDCS protocols for long-term management. Now, there is a scientific basis for recommending both EMCS and rTMS of M1 to treat refractory chronic neuropathic pain, but their application in clinical practice remains limited due to practical and regulatory issues.
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We provide an up-to-date review of the pharmacological treatment of neuropathic pain with emphasis on the latest evidence-based recommendations for its pharmacological treatment. Drugs proposed as first line include tricyclic antidepressants (particularly amitriptyline), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (particularly duloxetine), pregabalin and gabapentin. ⋯ Third line treatments include strong opioids and botulinum toxin A (for peripheral neuropathic pain). Perspectives include the development of new compounds and a more personalized therapeutic approach, which is made possible by recent progress in the assessment and understanding of neuropathic pain.