Patients with severe chronic pain, including those with arachnoiditis, have low serum cortisol levels, a new study has shown. Before prescribing opioids to such patients, clinicians should check cortisol levels, and if these levels are below normal, they should consider cortisol supplements, said Forest Tennant, MD, from Veract Intractable Pain Clinic, West Covina, California. “One […]
Read MoreThe possibility of symptomatic or permanent phrenic nerve palsy (PNP) need not loom over every patient administered an interscalene nerve block. Ki Jinn Chin, MD, associate professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Toronto Western Hospital, University of Toronto, told attendees of the 2016 International Symposium of Ultrasound for Regional Anesthesia, Pain Medicine, and Peri-operative […]
Read MoreA new study shows marked differences in opioid prescribing trends, even within the same institution. The study establishes “benchmarks” for opioid prescribing and sheds light on trends, which might help address the worrisome rise in opioid use, says Alan F. Kaul, PharmD, Department of Pharmacy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Boston, Massachusetts. “Everyone is concerned […]
Read MoreAuthors: M. Abdulatif et al This randomised, controlled, double-blind study investigated the effects of different doses of perineural dexmedetomidine on the pharmacodynamic profile of femoral nerve block in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Ultrasound-guided femoral nerve block was performed before general anaesthesia using 25 ml of bupivacaine 0.5% combined with normal saline in the control group, […]
Read MoreAUTHORS: Krishnan S et al Journal of Clinical Anesthesia (JCA) 33 432-7 (Sep 2016) BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES For the hundreds of thousands of patients who undergo total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the United States each year, early mobilization has been demonstrated to improve functional outcomes and reduce complications. Management of postoperative pain is a critical […]
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