News • Pain relief
Medasense Launches New Pain Monitoring Device, PMD200TM following European CE approval
New state-of-the-art technology helps clinicians provide personalised pain relief
Pain
Article • Pain Points
MR images can link patient symptoms to pain generators
Have you seen the videos? Perhaps you have read the 20-page paper published in Radiology? At MR 2017 Garmisch you will have the chance to see and hear a live presentation by William Palmer, M.D., Director of Musculoskeletal Radiology & Intervention at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of the Harvard Medical School.
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…
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.
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…
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,…
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:…
Arabs or Jews, children who need pain relief in the ER get it
Children with broken bones or joint dislocations in northern Israel emergency departments received equal pain treatment, regardless of their ethnicity or the ethnicity of the nurses who treated them, even during a period of armed conflict between the two ethnic groups.
Spinal manipulation works for back pain -- in some people
Researchers at the University of Alberta have found that spinal manipulation--applying force to move joints to treat pain, a technique most often used by chiropractors and physical therapists--does indeed have immediate benefits for some patients with low-back pain but does not work for others with low-back pain.
Article • Strategy
Spain: Chest pain units
Imaging modality complements a stress test in diagnosing the aetiology of chest pain, according to an expert speaking at the International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT (ICNC) held this May in Madrid.
Article • Cardiology II
Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinics
Many NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom have established Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinics (RACPC) to work in tandem with them in offering primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) – the gold standard treatment for heart attacks – 24 hours a day. Report: Mark Nicholls
Deadly dance between nerves and cancer cells
In certain types of cancer, nerves and cancer cells enter an often lethal and intricate waltz where cancer cells and nerves move toward one another and eventually engage in such a way that the cancer cells enter the nerves.
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…
Experts recommend 'ultrasound first' for imaging the female pelvis
Ultrasound technology has evolved dramatically in recent years. A group of noted obstetricians and gynecologists maintain that ultrasound is more cost-effective and safer than other imaging modalities for imaging the female pelvis and should be the first imaging modality used for patients with pelvic symptoms.
Hospital care for the dying must improve
Ten recommendations drawn up to improve care of the dying in the United Kingdom, will provide data to help hospitals to identify good and poor practice and to make changes to enhance learning in this care area.
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.
Quips and Pain Out provide worldwide pain data
Around 50% of surgical patients experience moderate to severe postoperative pain, and ‘minor’ surgery patients receive little pain care.
Therapies for damaged intervertebral discs
‘No large incision, no scalpel and no sutures: Radiologically guided, minimally invasive procedures can help many patients with chronic pain when conservative procedures don’t work,’ said Professor Siegfried Thurnher, head of the Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Vienna’s Hospital of St. John of God.
Pain is the point of departure for medical interaction
Pain is the point of departure of any medical interaction. When a body sends out pain signals to say that something is wrong, the person in pain will react – either by selfmedication or by consulting a physician.
EU doctors not ‘trained for pain’
Despite one in five EU citizens suffering chronic pain, doctors across Europe are woefully under-educated about pain management, according to a major EU survey unveiled at The European Pain Federation (EFIC) Congress, held in Florence, Italy (October 10th).
Save money: improve pain care in hospitals
Only individualised pharmacotherapy can maintain the quality of life for patients suffering from severe pain – and the benefit for the healthcare system is a resulting reduction in costs. A report by Anja Behringer.
Trail blazing bariatric surgery devices
Major advances in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) lead to a tremendous interest in new surgical endoscopes. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery via natural body orifices, such as the mouth, are obvious: less post-operative pain, a minor infection rate, minor incisional hernia, shorter hospitalisation and, finally, better cosmetic results. Karoline Laarmann reports
Migrants suffer pain more intensely
Cultural differences in pain perception and their consequences for pain therapy were discussed today at the 7th EFIC Congress: Pain in Europe VII. More than 4,000 experts from all over the world are currently gathered in Hamburg (D) to discuss the latest developments in pain research and therapy.
How can we measure infants' pain after an operation?
It turns out to be difficult to find out exactly how much a child who cannot yet speak suffers after a surgical operation. Researchers at the University Hospital of La Paz, in Madrid, have validated the 'Llanto' scale, the first, and only, tool in Spanish which measures infant pain rapidly and simply.
New report reveals inefficient management of chronic pain costs Europe billions of Euros each year
A new report launched today in the European Parliament shows inefficiencies in the treatment of chronic pain result in increasing healthcare costs and prolonged patient suffering.[1] Chronic pain costs Europe billions of Euros every year, with national costs ranging from €1.1 billion to nearly €50 billion.2,3 21% of Europeans with chronic pain are unable to work at all as a result of their…