Articles: pain-clinics.
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Recovery after surgery is highly variable. Risk-stratifying patients based on their predicted recovery profile will afford individualized perioperative management strategies. Recently, application of mass cytometry in patients undergoing hip arthroplasty revealed strong immune correlates of surgical recovery in blood samples collected shortly after surgery. However, the ability to interrogate a patient's immune state before surgery and predict recovery is highly desirable in perioperative medicine. ⋯ Convergent findings in pre- and postsurgical analyses provide validation of reported immune correlates and suggest a critical role of the toll-like receptor 4 signaling pathway in monocytes for the clinical recovery process. The comprehensive assessment of patients' preoperative immune state is promising for predicting important recovery parameters and may lead to clinical tests using standard flow cytometry.
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Natural selection has shaped the physiological properties of sensory systems across species, yielding large variations in their sensitivity. Here, we used laser stimulation of skin nociceptors, a widely used technique to investigate pain in rats and humans, to provide a vivid example of how ignoring these variations can lead to serious misconceptions in sensory neuroscience. In 6 experiments, we characterized and compared the physiological properties of the electrocortical responses elicited by laser stimulation in rats and humans. ⋯ Our results show that this interpretation is valid in humans, but not in rats. Indeed, the early response recorded in rats does not reflect the activation of the somatosensory system, but of the auditory system by laser-generated ultrasounds. These results have wide implications: retrospectively, as they prompt for a reconsideration of a large number of previous interpretations of electrocortical rat recordings in basic, preclinical, and pharmacological research, and prospectively, as they will allow recording truly pain-related cortical responses in rats.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Anaesthetic injection versus ischemic compression for the pain relief of abdominal wall trigger points in women with chronic pelvic pain.
Chronic pelvic pain is a common condition among women, and 10 to 30 % of causes originate from the abdominal wall, and are associated with trigger points. Although little is known about their pathophysiology, variable methods have been practiced clinically. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of local anaesthetic injections versus ischemic compression via physical therapy for pain relief of abdominal wall trigger points in women with chronic pelvic pain. ⋯ Lidocaine injection seems to be better for reducing the severity of chronic pelvic pain secondary to abdominal wall trigger points compared to ischemic compression via physical therapy.
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This manuscript proposes pharmacological strategies that might decrease persistent postsurgical pain (PPSP). These recommendations are based on a review of current publications available in the literature. ⋯ A winning strategy to reduce the incidence of PPSP may well involve performing minimally invasive surgery, providing adequate perioperative analgesia based on RA, and using a multimodal approach with NMDA antagonists.
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Eur J Phys Rehabil Med · Dec 2015
ReviewBalneotherapy (or spa therapy) for rheumatoid arthritis. An abridged version of Cochrane Systematic Review.
Treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) include pharmacological interventions, physical therapy treatments and balneotherapy. ⋯ We were not able to assess any clinical relevant impact of balneotherapy over placebo, no treatment or other treatments.