Pain

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Article • Innovation from Spain

Tackling an epidural anaesthesia complication

Four potentially game changing solutions selected for the annual commercial acceleration program of the Spanish foundation for innovation and prospective in healthcare (Spanish: FIPSE), included Duralock, a system that could ease post partum pain by avoiding postdural puncture headache (PDPH), a common complication of epidural anaesthesia. PDPH occurs when the anaesthesiologist punctures the dura…

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News • Uncommon causes

Abdominal pain? Try thinking outside the box

Early detection of mesenteric ischemia increases treatment options and the possibility of a full recovery, but the condition’s rarity may lead to a delay in diagnosis while more common causes of abdominal pain are explored. An article in the February 2018 issue of Critical Care Nurse (CCN) aims to heighten nurses’ knowledge of mesenteric ischemia and infarction (MI), which are infrequent but…

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News • Anesthesia

Patients overestimate postoperative pain

Patients significantly overestimate the anticipated amount of pain they’ll experience following surgery, which researchers say can cause unnecessary anxiety in patients, according to a new study. Patients who receive regional anesthesia, such as peripheral nerve blocks, epidurals or spinal anesthesia, were most likely to overestimate their postoperative pain.

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News • Personalized medication

Opioids often overprescribed

In a review of half a dozen published studies in which patients self-reported use of opioids prescribed to them after surgery, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that a substantial majority of patients used only some or none of the pills, and more than 90 percent failed to dispose of the leftovers in recommended ways.

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News • Successful dying

Researchers define the elements of a “Good Death”

For most people, the culmination of a good life is a “good death,” though what that means exactly is a matter of considerable consternation. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine surveyed published, English-language, peer-reviewed reports of qualitative and quantitative studies defining a “good death,” ultimately identifying 11 core themes associated…

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News • Women and Men

Heart Disease: same symptoms, different care

Despite messages to the contrary, most women being seen by a doctor for the first time with suspected heart disease actually experience the same classic symptoms as men, notably chest pain and shortness of breath, according to a study led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

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News • Discovery

Blueprint of body's heat sensor

Touch a hot stove, and your fingers will recoil in pain because your skin carries tiny temperature sensors that detect heat and send a message to your brain saying, "Ouch! That's hot! Let go!" The pain is real and it serves a purpose, otherwise we'd suffer greater injury. But for many people with chronic pain, that signal keeps getting sent for months or years, even when there is no…

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Article • Politics

EU aims to avoid opioid epidemic

In the USA, there is already talk of an ‘opioid epidemic’. Whereas in the past 20 years some 100,000 people died directly or indirectly through prescribed opioids, reports indicate that more than 16,000 died in 2010 alone. Since the sales of opioid analgesics quadrupled between 1999 and 2010 recent debates have intensified surrounding the use of opioids for non-tumour-related pain in the USA,…

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Article • Medication

Where pain relief is a matter of luck

Access to pain relieving medication varies greatly within Europe. ‘The availability and reimbursement of certain pain relieving medications for patients depends less on medical criteria than luck – living in the right country,’ declared Professor Hans Georg Kress, past president of the European Pain Federation EFIC, speaking in Vienna this September at the 9th EFIC Congress. Report:…

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Article • Cardiology I

Chest pain units in Germany

The German care system for patients with acute and unspecific chest pain is unique in Europe. The closely knit and countrywide network of accredited Chest Pain Units (CPUs) ensures fast and targeted diagnosis of acute cardiac events. The German CPUs may soon serve as a blueprint for other European countries. The German Cardiac Society (DGK) has already accredited the first institutions – others…

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Gathering to beat pain

This March, the Complesso Monumentale Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, was the unique and original venue for the 6th Annual SIMPAR Meeting, which aims to spread and support a wider scientific and cultural awareness of pain. Jane MacDougall interviewed Professor Massimo Allegri, President of organising committee, about the meeting and his own pain research projects.

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