Rejected

Animal studies suggest that pain-related-molecule upregulation in degenerated intervertebral discs (IVDs) potentially leads to low back pain (LBP). We hypothesized that IVD mechanical stress and axial loading contribute to discogenic LBP's pathomechanism. This study aimed to elucidate the relationships among the clinical findings, radiographical findings, and pain-related-molecule expression in human degenerated IVDs. We harvested degenerated-IVD samples from 35 patients during spinal interbody fusion surgery. Pain-related molecules including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin (IL)-6, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES1), and nerve growth factor (NGF) were determined. We also recorded preoperative clinical findings including body mass index (BMI), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and radiographical findings including the vacuum phenomenon (VP) and spinal instability. Furthermore, we compared pain-related-molecule expression between the VP (-) and (+) groups. BMI was significantly correlated with the ODI, CGRP, and mPGES-1 levels. In the VP (+) group, mPGES-1 levels were significantly higher than in the VP (-) group. Additionally, CGRP and mPGES-1 were significantly correlated. Axial loading and mechanical stress correlated with CGRP and mPGES-1 expression and not with inflammatory cytokine or NGF expression. Therefore, axial loading and mechanical stress upregulate CGRP and mPGES-1 in human degenerated IVDs, potentially leading to chronic discogenic LBP.

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In sea turtle rescue and rehabilitative medicine, many of the casualties suffer from occurrences that would be considered painful in other species; therefore, the use of analgesic drugs should be ethically mandatory to manage the pain and avoid its deleterious systemic effects to guarantee a rapid recovery and release. Nonetheless, pain assessment and management are particularly challenging in reptilians and chelonians. The available scientific literature demonstrates that, anatomically, biochemically, and physiologically, the central nervous system of reptiles and chelonians is to be considered functionally comparable to that of mammals albeit less sophisticated; therefore, reptiles can experience not only nociception but also "pain" in its definition of an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Hence, despite the necessity of appropriate pain management plans, the available literature on pain assessment and clinical efficacy of analgesic drugs currently in use (prevalently opioids and NSAIDs) is fragmented and suffers from some basic gaps or methodological bias that prevent a correct interpretation of the results. At present, the general understanding of the physiology of reptiles' pain and the possibility of its reasonable treatment is still in its infancy, considering the enormous amount of information still needed, and the use of analgesic drugs is still anecdotal or dangerously inferred from other species.

Modified radical mastectomy (MRM) and axillary lymph node dissection (AD) are the most commonly used surgical methods in breast cancer surgery, and they are characterized by moderate to severe pain. This study aimed to investigate the effect of ultrasound-guided serratus plane block (SPB) on postoperative acute and chronic pain in patients undergoing MRM and AD.

Verrucous epidermal nevus (VEN) are keratinocytic epidermal nevus that appear at birth or in early childhood. They exhibit a range of manifestations, depending on the patient's age. VEN are rarely encountered in clinical practice, and the systemic and comprehensive clinical characteristics of VEN have not been well investigated. Furthermore, the association between tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics and the VEN phenotype is still unclear.

Patients with stroke usually suffer from varying degrees of movement dysfunction, which seriously affects their quality of life, especially for the upper limb dysfunction. Therefore, this study aims to compare the effects of different repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modalities on upper limb motor function and daily activities in patients with stroke.

Postoperative pain following lower abdominal surgery is one of the most common complications reported by patients. Gabapentin given two hours before surgery as pre-emptive analgesia has been reported to reduce postoperative pain and decrease postoperative analgesia requirements. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of 600 mg oral gabapentin as a pre-emptive analgesia to reduce postoperative pain and morphine requirements following nonobstetric lower abdominal surgery.