Articles: neuralgia.
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We report the case of a 65 year old man who has been suffering from segmental back pain for 10 years. The diagnosis postherpetic neuralgia following herpes zoster sine herpete was fixed 9 years after the beginning of pain. All treatments prior to ours were ineffective. Acupuncture and the use of homeopathic drugs led to success at last.
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Neurogenic pain (encompassing all types of neuropathic and central pain) is discussed. Experimental work is presented in a model in which the rat sciatic nerve is loosely ligatured. In painful human neuropathies, tricyclic antidepressants have been found to be effective in proportion to the degree they facilitate monoaminergic activity. ⋯ In nociceptive pain, recent findings in humans emphasize the importance of both the retroinsular (SII) and the anterior cingulate cortices in the conscious appreciation of pain. Opioid studies have revealed individual differences in the metabolism of morphine to its 3- and 6-glucuronosides; patients with nociceptive pain who respond poorly to morphine or diamorphine probably have a high 3:6 ratio. It has been pointed out that methadone may be useful in such cases, as it is not broken down to glucuronosides.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effect of oral acyclovir on pain resolution in herpes zoster: a reanalysis.
The most frequent complication of herpes zoster is postherpetic neuralgia, usually defined as chronic pain in the area of the exanthem that persists for at least a month after the skin lesions have healed. Several clinical studies of acyclovir showed a reduction in severity and duration of acute pain, but provided no definitive data for chronic pain. In order to determine if acyclovir therapy could reduce chronic pain, we reanalyzed data from the largest U. ⋯ By considering pain as a continuum, we found that the median duration of pain in acyclovir recipients was 20 days vs. 62 days for their placebo counterparts (P = 0.02). Thus, acyclovir has been shown to reduce chronic zoster-associated pain. We also noted that the absence of pain at the onset of cutaneous herpes zoster did not preclude its later development.
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Clin Neurol Neurosurg · Jan 1993
Brachial plexus injury: deafferentation pain and dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) coagulation.
The nature of deafferentation pain in cases of brachial plexus injury is described. The natural course of the symptoms together with conservative treatment is outlined. The theoretical background of the dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) coagulation, and its clinical indications, operative techniques and results are presented.
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Acta neurochirurgica · Jan 1993
Ultrasonic DREZ-operations for treatment of pain due to brachial plexus avulsion.
One, if not the only effective way of treating pain due to preganglionic avulsion of the brachial plexus is the Dorsal Root Entry Zone (DREZ) lesion procedure. In 1985 the author began to use ultrasound as a lesion-maker for operations in the DREZ. Since then, 127 (3 patients were operated on twice) DREZ-Operations have been carried out on 124 patients suffering from chronic pain due to brachial plexus avulsion. ⋯ Analysis of the results after ultrasonic DREZ-operations revealed that ultrasonic DREZ-sulcomyelotomy was the most effective technical modality. Immediately after operation good pain relief was obtained in 103 (96%) out of the 107 patients operated on with the ultrasonic DREZ-sulcomyelotomy method, and in 15 (75%) out of the 20 patients with ultrasonic discontinuous DREZ-lesions. The total follow-up study (47.5 months on average) revealed 87% good results overall.