Articles: neuralgia.
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Regional-Anaesthesie · Apr 1987
[Indications and possibilities of blockade of the sympathetic nerve].
Treatment of chronic pain through permanent or temporary interruption of sympathetic activity is marked by great clinical success, but nevertheless there are rather skeptical reports about long-term results of these blocks as therapeutic measures. There are many symptoms and signs of chronic pain, while diagnosis is expensive, the pathogenesis is complex, and the etiology is generally due to multiple factors. Indications for sympathetic blockade depend upon the possible means of access, as in the cervicothoracic, thoracic, lumbar, or sacral regions. ⋯ During the last 16 years we performed 15,726 sympathetic blockades on 2385 patients, which included: 3735 stellate ganglion blocks, 6121 blocks of the lumbar sympathetic trunk, 5037 continuous peridural anesthesias, 29 blocks of the thoracic sympathetic trunk, and 12 celiac blocks. In 792 cases sympathetic blocks were performed using neurolytic drugs, in most cases 96% ethyl alcohol and less often 10% ammonium sulphate. Other possibilities, such as enteral administration or infusion of sympatholytic drugs, were not taken into consideration; regional intravascular injection of guanethidine can be recommended, however.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Capsaicin cream is the first of a class of neuropeptide active agents to be introduced into dermatologic therapy. Capsaicin's effects appear primarily related to its ability to deplete the neuropeptide substance P from local sensory terminals in the skin. The use of capsaicin cream in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia and psoriasis is discussed. I believe that capsaicin and other neuropeptide active agents may become important therapeutic modalities for the dermatologist in the near future.
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Annals of neurology · Dec 1986
ReviewAcute herpetic and postherpetic neuralgia: clinical review and current management.
The pain of acute herpes zoster (HZ) may be severe, but it is usually transitory. A minority of patients, with the elderly at particular risk, go on to develop persistent, severe, often disabling pain called postherpetic neuralgia. Though the clinical features of these conditions are well known, the pathology of PHN is poorly described and the pathogenesis of the pain in both remains conjectural. ⋯ Relatively few treatments have been studied in a controlled manner, and fully reliable, safe, and effective therapeutic approaches for preventing and treating postherpetic neuralgia have not yet been found. This review summarizes current information on the epidemiology, clinical features, and pathology of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia, and critically examines the accumulated experience with the various treatments. Guidelines for management are suggested.
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Neurol Neurochir Pol · Nov 1986
[Value of testing vibration sensation in diagnosing spondylogenic pain syndromes].
One-hundred patients with cervical vertebral changes, 100 with lumbar vertebral changes and 20 with ankylosing spondylitis were studied carrying out examinations of the sensation of touch, pain and vibration in these dermatomes and sclerotomes which are related to the levels of the most frequently occurring intervertebral disc changes. It was found that disturbances of the vibration sensation occurred significantly more frequently than disturbances of surface sensitivity, and their character suggested that they were a more specific sign of damage to the innervation of the spine than segmental disturbances of superficial sensitivity which are due to root damage.
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The definition of causalgia as a pain state following peripheral nerve injury has been accepted since the term was introduced by Weir Mitchell over a century ago. In the present paper, problems of nomenclature and nosology are discussed, and attention is drawn to the fact that the same clinical features can occur spontaneously, in nontraumatic nerve lesions, in the absence of a part as in phantom limb states, and in diseases confined to the central nervous system. Attention is also drawn to the lack of correlation of pain with the effects mediated by catecholamines in the sympathetic nervous system and with the response to sympathetic blockade. ⋯ Certain authors in the past considered that the central nervous system (CNS) played an important part in causalgia, and current evidence supporting this view is assessed. Involvement of the CNS is suggested by the development of causalgia in diseases confined to the CNS and in phantom pain states; the unusual distribution of pain sometimes experienced; the paradoxical development of widespread pain that can occur after damage to the sympathetic nervous system; the effects of peripheral sympathetic blockade even when the cause lies centrally; and central interactions with motor, sensory and psychological phenomena. Reservations concerning the role of catecholamines in causalgia are outlined, and the possibility is considered that nonadrenergic substances may be implicated.