Articles: pain.
-
Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2010
Review Meta AnalysisLong-term opioid management for chronic noncancer pain.
Opioid therapy for chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) is controversial due to concerns regarding long-term effectiveness and safety, particularly the risk of tolerance, dependence, or abuse. ⋯ Many patients discontinue long-term opioid therapy (especially oral opioids) due to adverse events or insufficient pain relief; however, weak evidence suggests that patients who are able to continue opioids long-term experience clinically significant pain relief. Whether quality of life or functioning improves is inconclusive. Many minor adverse events (like nausea and headache) occurred, but serious adverse events, including iatrogenic opioid addiction, were rare.
-
Review Meta Analysis
The effect of intravenous opioid patient-controlled analgesia with and without background infusion on respiratory depression: a meta-analysis.
Although the addition of a background infusion for intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA) has been identified as a risk factor for the development of respiratory depression, this has not clearly been examined in a systematic fashion. The authors undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to examine whether the addition of a background or continuous infusion to an IV-PCA regimen would be associated with an increased risk of respiratory depression. ⋯ Our meta-analysis indicates that the addition of a continuous or background infusion to the demand dose for IV-PCA is associated with a higher incidence of respiratory events than demand IV-PCA alone in adult but not in pediatric patients; however, our overall results should be interpreted with caution due to the relatively small sample size and the wide range of definitions for respiratory depression in studies examined.
-
Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2010
Review Meta AnalysisParacetamol/acetaminophen (single administration) for perineal pain in the early postpartum period.
Perineal pain is a common but poorly studied adverse outcome following childbirth. Pain may result from perineal trauma due to bruising, spontaneous tears, surgical incisions (episiotomies), or in association with operative births (ventouse or forceps assisted births). ⋯ More women experienced pain relief, and fewer had additional pain relief, with paracetamol compared with placebo, although potential adverse effects were not assessed and generally the quality of studies was unclear.
-
Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2010
Review Meta AnalysisTopical agents or dressings for pain in venous leg ulcers.
Venous leg ulcers affect up to 1 per cent of people at some time in their lives. The main treatments are compression bandages and dressings. As these ulcers are often painful some clinicians choose particular dressings and topical treatments (analgesia/ local anaesthetic) to reduce the pain both during and between dressing changes. ⋯ There is no evidence that ibuprofen dressings offer pain relief, as measured at the first evening of use, to people with painful venous leg ulcers compared with foam dressings or best practice.EMLA appears to provide effective pain relief for venous leg ulcer debridement but the effect (if any) of EMLA on ulcer healing remains unknown.
-
Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2010
Review Meta AnalysisPerioperative transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks for analgesia after abdominal surgery.
The transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block is a peripheral nerve block which anaesthetises the abdominal wall. The increasing use of TAP block, as a form of pain relief after abdominal surgery warrants evaluation of its effectiveness as an adjunctive technique to routine care and, when compared with other analgesic techniques. ⋯ No studies have compared TAP block with other analgesics such as epidural analgesia or local anaesthetic infiltration into the abdominal wound. There is only limited evidence to suggest use of perioperative TAP block reduces opioid consumption and pain scores after abdominal surgery when compared with no intervention or placebo. There is no apparent reduction in postoperative nausea and vomiting or sedation from the small numbers of studies to date. Many relevant studies are currently underway or awaiting publication.