Publications by authors named "Charles De Mesa"

Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite the prevalence and morbidity of lower back pain, we still lack a gold-standard treatment that restores the physiological function of degenerated intervertebral discs. Recently, stem cells have emerged as a promising strategy for regenerative therapy for degenerative disc disease.

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Article Synopsis
  • The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted the trainee recruitment process at UC Davis, necessitating a shift from in-person interviews to a virtual format for the Pain Division's multiple mini-interview (MMI) process.
  • Applicants participated in virtual interviews via Zoom, which included instructional videos and informal discussions with current fellows and faculty, while their confidentiality was ensured through agreements.
  • An 80% response rate from a post-interview satisfaction survey revealed that applicants were generally pleased with the virtual process, despite some concerns about technical issues and confidentiality.
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The field of physical medicine and rehabilitation should strive for a physician workforce that is ethnically/racially, sex, and ability diverse. Considering the recent realities of disparities in health outcomes related to COVID-19 and in racial injustice in the United States, we are called to be champions for antiracism and equity. The specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation should be the leaders in fostering a culture of inclusion and pay special attention to the population of applicants who are underrepresented in medicine.

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Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a class of drugs commonly used to treat both the acute and chronic injuries sustained by athletes during training and competition. In many parts of the world, NSAIDs can be purchased over-the-counter and used without any physician oversight. However, the chronic nature of overuse injuries requires NSAIDs to be taken orally for an extended period of time.

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Objective Neck-Tongue syndrome (NTS) is characterized by brief attacks of neck or occipital pain, or both, brought out by abrupt head turning and accompanied by ipsilateral tongue symptoms. As the disorder is rare, we undertook a systematic review of the literature to identify all reported cases in order to phenotype clinically the disorder and subsequently inform clinical diagnostic criteria. Methods Two electronic databases were searched using the search term "neck tongue syndrome".

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Unlabelled: Epidural steroid injections are common interventional pain procedures for radicular pain when conservative therapies fail. We present the case of a 36-year-old woman with lumbar radicular pain who developed a hypersensitivity reaction to iohexol during a fluoroscopically guided interlaminar epidural steroid injection resulting in lipoma development. Mechanisms of anaphylactoid reaction and recommendations for lipoma treatment are described based on clinical presentation.

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Exposure to secondhand smoke causes adverse health outcomes particularly in vulnerable groups like children. This multi-centered prospective study examined the household exposure to secondhand smoke among asthmatic children presenting to emergency departments on O'ahu, Hawai'i. Findings revealed that asthmatic children of Samoan, Micronesian, Filipino, Part/Native Hawaiian and Other/Mixed Ancestry had a greater proportion of high exposure to secondhand smoke in the home compared to Japanese, Chinese and Caucasian ethnic groups.

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A profile of Hawai'i's pediatric asthmatic patients who repeatedly visit the ED is lacking. This multi-centered prospective study found that repeat ED utilization occurs more frequently in a particular subset of patients. Characteristics of the asthmatic cohort can help health care providers, caregivers, children, and their families understand and better manage asthma as a chronic condition and improve quality of life.

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Background: The oxygen saturation (OSAT) of wheezing children presenting to an emergency department has been shown to be a predictor for hospitalization. The purpose of this study is to determine if hospitalization predictive power can be increased by further stratifying this by the step severity categories (based on chronic symptoms).

Methods: Data were collected prospectively at 6 centers over a 22-month period on 1219 pediatric patients.

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