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Neuropathic pain is sometimes difficult to manage because of limited efficacy of analgesic monotherapy even at high doses. Combination therapy may help address this issue, but there is little evidence for its effectiveness. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy of combination therapy with pregabalin, an anchor drug for treating neuropathic pain, using the rat L5 spinal nerve ligation model.

Neuropathic pain is a widespread problem with a big impact on quality of life. The currently used drug regimens are often insufficiently effective or cause – sometimes unacceptable – side effects. Intravenous lidocaine could be an alternative treatment, by blocking spontaneous depolarization and hyperexcitability in upregulated sodium channels in nociceptors. Research so far has shown varying results but the treatment protocols differed a lot and follow-up was usually short. In our hospital, lidocaine infusions have been applied for many years in a unique treatment protocol consisting of a relatively high dose of lidocaine (1000 mg) administered over 25 hours. Our aim is to share information on both the efficacy and safety of this treatment schedule.

Patients diagnosed with pituitary apoplexy and presenting with acute visual deterioration require urgent surgical resection. This is also commonly associated with pituitary hypopituitarism that requires hormonal replacement for correction. This study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical recovery of 45 patients diagnosed with symptomatic pituitary apoplexy who underwent early (within 72 h of symptom onset) endoscopic transsphenoidal surgical resection with an emphasis on visual, ocular craniopathy, and endocrinological outcome.

Using data from all those born in a single week in 1958 in Britain we track associations between short pain and chronic pain in mid-life (age 44) and subsequent health, wellbeing and labor market outcomes in later life. We focus on data taken at age 50 in 2008, when the Great Recession hit and then five years later at age 55 in 2013 and again at age 62 in 2021 during the Covid pandemic. We find those suffering both short-term and chronic pain at age 44 continue to report pain and poor general health in their 50s and 60s. However, the associations are much stronger for those with chronic pain. Furthermore, chronic pain at age 44 is associated with a range of poor mental health outcomes, pessimism about the future and joblessness at age 55 whereas short-duration pain at age 44 is not. Pain has strong predictive power for pain later in life: pain in childhood predicts pain in mid-life, even when one controls for pain in early adulthood. Pain appears to reflect other vulnerabilities as we find that chronic pain at age 44 predicts whether or not a respondent has Covid nearly twenty years later.

To validate an individual's feelings or behaviour is to sanction their thoughts or actions as worthy of social acceptance and support. In contrast, rejection of the individual's communicated experience indicates a denial of social acceptance, representing a potential survival threat. Pain-invalidation, though ill-defined, appears to be a fundamental component of psychosocial stress for people with chronic pain. As such, the aim of this paper was to define pain-validation and outline its importance for those with chronic pain.

The beneficial effects of Tai Chi on the cardiovascular risk profile and the migraine trigger factors among female migraineurs remain unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week Tai Chi training on blood pressure (BP) and migraine-related trigger factors, including stress, fatigue, and sleep quality among Chinese women with episodic migraine. In this study, eligible Hong Kong Chinese women aged 18-65 years were randomly assigned to the Tai Chi group adopting a modified 33-short form of Yang style Tai Chi training for 12 weeks, followed by additional 12 weeks of self-practice or the waiting list control group that maintained the usual lifestyle for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was the changes in BP from the baseline to 12 and 24 weeks. The secondary outcomes included the stress level, fatigue, and sleep quality measured by the perceived stress scale (PSS), the numeric rating scale-fatigue (NRS-fatigue), and the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), respectively. Significant between-group differences were found in systolic BP (-6.8 mmHg at 24 weeks, =0.02), and a decreasing trend was significant across baseline, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks between groups ( < 0.05). The 12-week Tai Chi training significantly reduced the BP level and moderately improved stress level, fatigue status, and sleep quality among Chinese women with episodic migraine. Therefore, Tai Chi could be considered a promising mind-body exercise with good feasibility for migraineurs in the future. This trial is registered with registration number NCT03015753.

Epidural nerve block and analgesia are basic anesthetic techniques for anesthesia. Epidural catheter rupture and partial retention are adverse events and rare complications of epidural catheterization technique. The probability of occurrence when applied by novice doctors is high. Removal of the residual catheter by conventional surgery causes more trauma and bleeding, slows recovery, and may causes medical disputes. We hypothesized that percutaneous spinal endoscopy a safe and effective remediation technique. This study was to analyze the efficacy and safety of removing the residual dural catheter by a percutaneous full-endoscopic technique(PFET) and discuss the clinical technique and precautions.

Mechanisms underlying myofascial temporomandibular disorder (mTMD) are poorly understood. One theory is dysfunction in the central mediation of pain, specifically in enhanced facilitatory pain modulation. Because mechanisms leading to central sensitization may differ for joint and muscle pain, this study of mTMD addressed phenotypic heterogeneity by temporomandibular (TM) joint pain in the examination of quantitative sensory testing (QST).

Neuropathic pain affects 7-10% of the population, with most of the patients receiving inadequate and incomplete treatment. Owing to the high financial burden and the poor quality of life of the patients and their caretakers, there is a dire need to address the challenges in diagnosing and treating chronic neuropathic pain.

To evaluate the analgesic efficacy and risk of low-to-medium dose intrathecal morphine (ITM) (i.e., ≤0.5 mg) following cardiac surgery.