Addressing the Opioid Crisis-The Need for a Pain Management Intervention in Community Pharmacies in Canada: A Narrative Review.

The opioid crisis is a public health concern in Canada with a continued rise in deaths and presents a significant economic impact on the healthcare system. There is a need to develop and implement strategies for decreasing the risk of opioid overdoses and other opioid-related harms resulting from the use of prescription opioids. Pharmacists, as medication experts and educators, and as one of the most accessible frontline healthcare providers, are well positioned to provide effective opioid stewardship through a pain management program focused on improving pain management for patients, supporting appropriate prescribing and dispensing of opioids, and supporting safe and appropriate use of opioids to minimize potential opioid misuse, abuse, and harm.

Virtual reality immersion compared to monitored anesthesia care for hand surgery: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Common anesthesia practice for hand surgery combines a preoperative regional anesthetic and intraoperative monitored anesthesia care (MAC). Despite adequate regional anesthesia, patients may receive doses of intraoperative sedatives which can result in oversedation and potentially avoidable complications. VR could prove to be a valuable tool for patients and providers by distracting the mind from processing noxious stimuli resulting in minimized sedative use and reduced risk of oversedation without negatively impacting patient satisfaction.

Virtual reality as an adjunct to anesthesia in the operating room.

Background: Advancements in virtual reality (VR) technology have resulted in its expansion into health care. Preliminary studies have found VR to be effective as an adjunct to anesthesia to reduce pain and anxiety for patients during upper gastrointestinal endoscopies, dental procedures and joint arthroplasties. Current standard care practice for upper extremity surgery includes a combination of regional anesthesia and intraoperative propofol sedation.

Src family kinase inhibitor bosutinib enhances retinoic acid-induced differentiation of HL-60 leukemia cells.

The acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has been treated with all-trans retinoic acid (RA) for decades. While RA has largely been ineffective in non-APL AML subtypes, co-treatments combining RA and other agents are currently in clinical trials. Using the RA-responsive non-APL AML cell line HL-60, we tested the efficacy of the Src family kinase (SFK) inhibitor bosutinib on RA-induced differentiation.

Altering spacer material affects bone regeneration in the Masquelet technique in a rat femoral defect.

The Masquelet technique depends on pre-development of a foreign-body membrane to support bone regeneration with grafts over three times larger than the traditional maximum. To date, the procedure has always used spacers made of bone cement, which is the polymer polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), to induce the foreign-body membrane. This study sought to compare (i) morphology, factor expression, and cellularity in membranes formed by PMMA, titanium, and polyvinyl alcohol sponge (PVA) spacers in the Masquelet milieu and (ii) subsequent bone regeneration in the same groups.

Remnant Woven Bone and Calcified Cartilage in Mouse Bone: Differences between Ages/Sex and Effects on Bone Strength.

Introduction: Mouse models are used frequently to study effects of bone diseases and genetic determinates of bone strength. Murine bones have an intracortical band of woven bone that is not present in human bones. This band is not obvious under brightfield imaging and not typically analyzed.