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.
Pain
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…
Investigating sports injuries
Radiologist Dr Karl-Friedrich Schünemann works in a group* practice in the small German city of Paderborn. Focusing on sports injuries and using MRI, CT and X-ray, the specialist medical team provides services such as neuroradiology, orthopaedics and CT-guided pain therapy. ‘The fact that we count a number of professional athletes among our clients also attracts many amateur athletes who…
Colonic stents - buying time for surgery
In 2006, about 307,432 new cases of colorectal cancer arose in the European Union. The rates varied by a factor of two for women and three for men. The lowest rates were in Greece; the highest in Hungary and the Czech Republic. The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing in Europe, particularly in the south and east, where rates were originally lower than in Western Europe.
The 11th EFORT Congress
This year's European Congress for Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, organised by the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) and which will in tandem with the Spanish Orthopaedic and Traumatology Society (SECOT) Congress, is expected to draw 7,500 international participants.
Simultaneous hot/cold and electrotherapy
ELFcare, which simultaneously uses hot/cold and electrotherapy to treat acute and chronic pain, is a new innovation from the Israeli firm Mediseb, which was set up in 2000 to develop and manufacture medical engineering systems and products specifically for pain relief.
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy
Established in 1999, Swiss firm EMS Electro Medical Systems S.A. manufactures DolorClast, a device specifically designed for orthopaedic use. Today, around 2,500 of these devices are used worldwide to deliver extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT).
Pain therapy for urological patients
Pain is the most common symptom of any illness thus having an alerting function to evoke protective responses. If tissue damage has happened as a consequence of surgery, obstruction, injuries, or cancer a cascade of changes in the peripheral and central nervous system occurs leading to physical inactivation, an increase of morbidity thus delaying hospital stay and treatment costs.
Palliativmedizin: Bundestagsbeschluss blendet wichtige Inhalte aus
Mit dem Beschluss des Gesetzes zum Assistenzpflegebedarf, das es Menschen mit Behinderung erlaubt, Hilfen ihres ambulanten Pflegepersonals auch während eines stationären Krankenhausaufenthalts in Anspruch zu nehmen, wurde auch die Aufnahme eines neuen Querschnittbereichs in das Medizinstudium beschlossen: Künftig gehört die Palliativmedizin zur Ausbildung für angehende Ärzte dazu.
Beckman Coulter Expands Drugs of Abuse Test
Beckman Coulter, Inc. has expanded its drugs of abuse test menu to include a DRI* Oxycodone Enzyme Immunoassay (OXYX). The assay is for the qualitative and semi-quantitative determination of oxycodone and its metabolite, oxymorphone, in human urine.
MEDICA 2008 opens its doors
When from 19 to 22 November the world's largest medical fair takes place in Dusseldorf, the entire city is in a kind of emergency state: hotels are bustin' out of their seams, traffic periodically comes to a standstill and at night exhibitors and visitors alike crowd the narrow streets of the Altstadt and the fancy hotel bars and enjoy whatever entertainment North Rhine-Westphalia's capital has…
Cancer patients are not informed enough
Two thirds of cancer patients receive little or no information about the survival benefits of having palliative chemotherapy before making a decision about treatment, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website.
Helical tomotherapy
By Rudolf Schwarz and Andreas Krüll, of the Section of Radiation Oncology Department, Ambulanzzentrum GmbH of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
The German Congress of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery
Despite the very varied nature of the scientific programme for The German Congress of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery (Berlin, 24-27 October), Congress President Professor Joachim Hassenpflug, with Prof. Kuno Weise MD, President of the DGU, and Siegfried Götte MD, President of the BVOU, had ensured the presentations addressed representatives from both medical disciplines.
Innovative Konzepte der Schmerztherapie - der EFIC Grünenthal Grant prämiert junge Forscher
29 junge Forscher bewarben sich um den diesjährigen, mit 100,000 Euro dotierten europäischen Schmerzpreis EFIC Grünenthal Grant (EGG). Der Pharmakonzern Grünenthal und die europäische Gesellschaft für Schmerzwissenschaft (EFIC) unterstützen aktiv die Suche nach neuen Erkenntnissen in der Schmerztherapie.
Five win certificates in pain free hospital pilot scheme
A pain-free Hospital pilot project launched in Germany three years ago has ended with the first five of 25 hospitals being awarded a Qualified Pain Therapy certification.
The Pain-free Hospital - Pilot project successfully completed in five hospitals
The first five out of a total of 25 German hospitals have just been awarded the certification "Qualified Pain Therapy" with the completion of the pilot project "Pain-free Hospital".
HF shower to treat pain and depression
In the first six months of 2004, over 17,000 people sought help and advice from the German Pain Union (Deutsche Schmerzliga), which demonstrates the high number of people, in Germany alone, who have failed to find a therapy that can alleviate recurrent or chronic pains
