Pretreatment anxiety and pain acceptance are associated with response to trigger point injection therapy for chronic myofascial pain.

Background And Aim: This study examined the psychosocial profile of patients who responded or did not respond to trigger point injection therapy for chronic myofascial pain.

Methods: Seventy one patients with a diagnosis of chronic myofascial pain of the paraspinous muscles completed a pretreatment questionnaire measuring demographic and social factors, and validated scales to assess pain intensity, pain interference (physical and emotional), and defined psychological characteristics (pain catastrophizing, pain acceptance, pain self-efficacy, mood and anxiety). Trigger point injection therapy of the affected areas of myofascial pain was performed and follow-up was conducted by telephone at one week (n = 65) and one month (n = 63) post intervention to assess treatment outcome (pain intensity and pain-related physical interference).

Anesthesia in pregnant patients for nonobstetric surgery.

Anesthesiologists in every subspecialty encounter, with varying regularity, patients presenting for surgery during the course of pregnancy. With the increasing sophistication of surgical and anesthetic techniques, increasingly complex surgeries are being undertaken. In this review, we address the fundamental physiologic principles central to the care of pregnant patients and fetuses in this difficult clinical situation.

A comparison of Espocan and Tuohy needles for the combined spinal-epidural technique for labor analgesia.

Unlabelled: When using the needle-through-needle combined spinal-epidural (CSE) technique for labor analgesia, failure to obtain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), paresthesias, and intrathecal or intravascular migration of the catheter are of concern. Epidural needles with spinal needle apertures, such as the back-hole Espocan (ES) needles, are available and may reduce these risks. We describe the efficacy and adverse events associated with a modified epidural needle (ES) versus a conventional Tuohy needle for CSE.

Drug infusions for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain.

Diagnostic infusion therapy has several advantages over other routes of drug administration in the management of chronic pain. Although systemic side effects may occur, the procedure is relatively noninvasive and is generally well tolerated by patients. Infusion techniques have a potential use in the blinded evaluation of a patient's response to a specific therapy, and thus may minimize placebo responses associated with the more invasive diagnostic nerve blocks.