Prevention of post-herpetic neuralgia: acyclovir and prednisolone versus epidural local anesthetic and methylprednisolone.

Background: Treatment of herpes zoster (HZ) includes the use of acyclovir with or without steroids. An alternative therapy is the epidural administration of local anesthetics with or without steroids. This trial compared the efficacy of these two treatment regimens in the prevention of post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Topical axonal transport blocker vincristine prevents nerve injury-induced spinal neuron sensitization in rats.

The effect of vincristine (Vin, a fast axonal transport blocker) to prevent any alteration in the excitability of dorsal horn neurons, following peripheral nerve injury, was investigated on 31 rats: 20 with chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve and 11 sham preparations. In 15 of the 20 CCI rats, a small piece of gelfoam soaked with Vin was applied to the sciatic nerve before ligation (Vin+); in the remaining 5 rats the nerve was ligated without Vin (Vin-). The 11 sham rats were 7 Vin+ and 4 Vin-.

[Postoperative intravenous analgesia].

The authors report the results of two clinical studies on postoperative pain relief with PCA. In the first clinical study 44 patients, undergoing gynecologic surgery, were assigned at random to two groups. The first was treated by PCA (infusor Baxter) with morphine i.