Inadequate pain management is highly prevalent and is associated with significant costs and socioeconomic problems, which can lead to disparities in patient ...

Chronic pain is the third main problem of global health and the most common cause of long-term disabilities. The duration that patients suffer from chronic ...

To present the characteristics of neuropathic pain in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). We recruited all individuals with chronic SCI referred to the Brain and Spine Injury Research center with a diagnosis of neuropathic pain from April 2013 to September 2015 into this historical cohort study. Forty individuals with chronic SCI-induced neuropathic pain entered this study with a mean age of 43.67+/-13.12 years and a majority of who were male (n=30, 75%). Motor vehicle collision (n=25, 62.5%) and fall (n=7, 17.5%) were the most common causes of SCI in our participants. There were 13 (32.5%) cervical, twenty (50%) thoracic, and 7 (17.5%) lumbosacral SCI. The mean `maximal pain intensity`, `overall pain intensity during the past week`, and `the pain intensity at the initial consultation in pain clinic` measured by numerical rating scale (NRS) in this cohort were 8.71+/-1.73, 6.32+/-1.60, and 6.11+/-2.48, respectively. Burning pain was the most frequently used description of pain reported by our participants. Pain intensity significantly decreased after six months of treatment for all three above categories. This study provides characteristics of neuropathic pain in a group of individuals with chronic SCI. Further large prospective studies are needed to determine the association between lesion level, completeness of injury, and region of pain.

Background: Cluster headache is a variant of primary neurovascular headaches. some patients with cluster headache are not responsive to medical treatment and may benefit from interventional modalities, including sphenopalatine ganglion block and denervation. Objectives: Our purpose was to evaluate the efficacy of sphenopalatine ganglion block/denervation in the treatment of cluster headache. Methods: In this study, we performed the sphenopalatine ganglion block for patients with cluster headaches, intractable to medical therapy, who were referred to our pain clinic between 2014 and 2018. We registered the following information for all patients: demographic data, pain relief, and pain intensity. First, we conducted a prognostic C-arm-guided sphenopalatine ganglion block. If there was at least 50% pain relief within the first 5 h, then we denervated the ganglion by radiofrequency ablation. The main outcome of the study (dependent variable) was pain relief. We followed the patients for 6 months. Results: Among 23 enrolled patients, 19 consented to interventional treatment. Fifteen out of 19 patients (79%) had an acceptable response to the prognostic block. Ultimately, 11 patients underwent ganglion denervation, and 4 patients did not consent for ganglion ablation. Pain relief at intervals of 48 h, and 1, 3, and 6 months after ganglion denervation was 77, 59, 50, and 31 percent, respectively. Conclusions: Sphenopalatine ganglion conventional radiofrequency denervation can effectively decrease the pain intensity of the patients with cluster headache for at least several months.

Several studies have demonstrated an association between chronic pain and impairment of cognitive capabilities. Since the number sense is one of the cogniti ...