Celiac plexus blocks have been utilized to treat chronic abdominal pain of various etiologies that are refractory to medication management. This procedure is considered relatively safe; however, one rare complication is anterior spinal artery syndrome, which can result in temporary or permanent paralysis of the lower extremities. A 67-year-old male with a history of metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma and chronic pain refractory to high doses of opioids presented for a celiac plexus neurolytic block.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Social media remains a growing platform for physicians to facilitate learning, network, and disseminate information. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged traditional medical student recruitment and outreach. Instagram is a platform that can be used by residency programs to increase engagement and as a potential recruitment tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer-related pain is progressive and therefore requires a stepwise approach to management, such as the World Health Organization's Pain Ladder. This approach calls for increasingly strong pain medications in addition to interventional options for patients with medication-refractory pain or intolerable medication side effects. Here, we discuss a case involving cancer-related pain which ultimately required intrathecal drug delivery system placement for optimal pain management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Electronic (eHealth) and mobile (mHealth) technologies may be a useful adjunct to clinicians treating patients with chronic pain. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of eHealth and mHealth interventions that do not require clinician contact or feedback on pain-related outcomes recommended by the Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials (IMMPACT) guidelines in adults with chronic pain.
Methods: We searched four databases and included English language randomized controlled trials of ambulatory adults with chronic pain from January, 1 2000, to January 31, 2018, with interventions that are independent of clinician contact or feedback.