Spinal cord stimulation and return to work of patients with failed back surgery syndrome.

Objectives: Chronic pain has a substantial negative impact on work-related outcomes, which underlines the importance of interventions to reduce the burden. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) efficiently relieves pain in specific chronic pain syndromes and is recommended for treating failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) or post-surgical chronic back pain that is refractory to other treatments. To examine the impact of SCS in patients with FBSS on the return to work (RTW), we determined the RTW rate and the factors positively associated with the RTW.

[Pain and dementia].

Dementia and pain are both common in the elderly and then frequently associated. The literature review shows that pain in dementia is underdiagnosed and consequently undertreated. This can be linked to: 1) the difficulty of pain assessment in patients with cognitive disorders and altered communication skills; 2) changes of pain processing and especially in the motivational-affective domain; 3) modified efficacy of analgesic drugs.