Author: Dr Clemens

Uncategorized Published - 18 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Gabapentin in Headache Disorders: What Is the Evidence?

Pain Med,2015 Sep 23. Authors: Perloff MD et al OBJECTIVE: Gabapentin (GBP), originally an antiepileptic drug, is more commonly used in the treatment of pain, including headache disorders. Off-label GBP is used in headache disorders with some success, some failure, and much debate. Due to this ambiguity, a clinical evidence literature review was performed investigating GBP’s […]

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Uncategorized Published - 18 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Postextubation laryngeal edema and stridor resulting in respiratory failure in critically ill adult patients: updated review

Crit Care, 2015 Sep 23;19(1):295. Authors: Pluims WA et al Endotracheal intubation is frequently complicated by laryngeal edema, which may present as postextubation stridor or respiratory difficulty or both. Ultimately, postextubation laryngeal edema may result in respiratory failure with subsequent reintubation. Risk factors for postextubation laryngeal edema include female gender, large tube size, and prolonged intubation. Although […]

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Uncategorized Published - 18 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
New Guidelines on the Use of Prescription Medications for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction

Medications play an important role in managing patients with opioid use disorders, but there are not enough physicians with the knowledge and ability to use these often-complex treatments. New evidence-based recommendations on the use of prescription medications for the treatment of opioid addiction are published in the October/November issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the […]

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Uncategorized Published - 18 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Gene Therapy Offers Long-Term Pain Relief for Patients With Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) can be effectively treated with hepatocyte growth factor gene therapy, according to results of a phase 2 clinical trial presented at the 140th Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association (ANA). “Diabetic peripheral neuropathy can cause debilitating pain with no effective treatment, and hepatocyte growth factor has potent neurotropic and […]

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Uncategorized Published - 18 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Very Low Frequency Deep-Brain Stimulation Improves Neuropathic Pain After Spinal-Cord Injury

Very low frequency (<2 Hz) stimulation may be more effective at controlling neuropathic pain in patients with spinal-cord injury than higher frequencies (>10 Hz), according to a small, 2-subject study presented on September 28 at the 140th Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association (ANA). Corneliu Luca MD, PhD, University of Miami Health System, Miami, […]

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Uncategorized Published - 17 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Glial Attenuation With Ibudilast in the Treatment of Medication Overuse Headache: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Trial of Efficacy and Safety

Headache, 2015 Oct;55(9):1192-208. Authors: Johnson JL et al BACKGROUND: Medication overuse headache (MOH) is a condition bordering between a chronic pain condition and a substance dependence disorder. Activation of immunocompetent glial cells in the central nervous system has been linked to both pathological pain and drug addiction/reward. Preclinically, ibudilast attenuates glial activation and is able to reduce […]

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Uncategorized Published - 17 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Does Extended-Release Liposomal Bupivacaine Better Control Pain Than Bupivacaine After Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA)? A Prospective, Randomized Clinical Trial.

J Arthroplasty, 2015 Sep;30 Authors: Schroer WC et al Liposomal bupivacaine periarticular injection (PAI) offers sustained bupivacaine release after TKA, but few prospective independent studies exist. In this prospective, blinded study, liposomal bupivacaine was randomized against bupivacaine and incorporated into a comprehensive multimodal pain management protocol. 111 primary TKAs were randomized to receive PAI: 58 patients received […]

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Uncategorized Published - 17 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Beta-Blockade and Other Perioperative Pharmacological Protectors

 What Is Now Available and Efficacious? Authors: J. W. Sear et al Br J Anaesth. 2015;115(3):333-336. Publication, in 2008, of the results of POISE, the largest randomized controlled trial (RCT) of perioperative beta-blockade, confirmed previous studies that had shown beta-blockade to offer cardiac protection in patients with, or at risk for, coronary heart disease.[1] However, this protection […]

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Uncategorized Published - 17 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
Using Clinical Parameters to Guide Fluid Therapy in High-Risk Thoracic Surgery

A Retrospective, Observational Study Authors: Lars Stryhn Bjerregaard et BMC Anesthesiol. 2015;15(91) Background: Despite extensive research, the debate continues as to the optimal way of guiding intraoperative and postoperative fluid therapy. In 2009 we changed our institutional guideline for perioperative fluid therapy in patients undergoing extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and implemented the use of central venous oxygen saturation […]

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Uncategorized Published - 17 December, 2015    By - Dr Clemens
US Opioid Epidemic Fueled by Prescribing Practices

The United States is facing the worst “man-made epidemic” of opioid abuse in the history of modern medicine, and it is the direct result of poor research and outdated teaching practices, according to a leading pain expert. “There’s been over 200,000 deaths from prescription opioids and many more hundreds of thousands of overdose admissions, and […]

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