A Pilot Study to Explore the Use of Skin Biopsy as Diagnostic Tool in Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment...
Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment SyndromeNerve Entrapment Syndrome2 moreACNES is a neuropathic pain condition of the abdominal wall. It is a clinical diagnosis based on patient's history and physical examination. No diagnostic test is available to confirm the diagnosis. This pilot study will determine if skin biopsies can be used as diagnostic test. Two 3mm biopsies will be taken and used to count the small nerve fibres in the skin. The number of small nerve fibres of the painful skin will be compared to non-painful skin. Skin biopsy and small fibre nerve count is already used as diagnostic test in patients with small-fibre neuropathy. The investigators hypothesize that patients with ACNES will have a reduced number of small nerve fibres in the affected skin, compared to the non-affected skin.
Dexamethasone for Reduction of Post Thoracotomy Pain Syndrome
Chronic PainDexamethasone2 morePost thoracotomy pain syndrome still affects 50% of patients after a thoracic surgery. Pathogenesis is unclear but there is growing evidence that neuro inflammation may play a significant role. Dexamethasone is a very potent anti-inflammatory drug. The hypothesis of this study is that dexamethasone, given pre operatively, would help reduce the incidence of post thoracotomy pain syndrome 3 months after surgery, by reducing the inflammatory response, in patients undergoing elective thoracic surgery that includes thoracic epidural analgesia.
Effect of Guanfacine on the Reversal of Opioid-induced Hyperalgesia (OIH)
Chronic PainCombination of guanfacine with opioid medication as a standard treatment for chronic pain.
Serratus Anterior Plane Block to Prevent Chronic Postoperative Pain in Breast Cancer
Breast NeoplasmsPain4 moreChronic postoperative pain (CPP) remains a disturbing and obscure clinical problem. The hypothesis of this trial is that a peripheral block of the serratus anterior plane block type preoperatively after a modified radical mastectomy makes it possible to reduce the intensity and incidence of chronic post-surgical pain in breast cancer.
Caudal Epidural Prolotherapy Versus Steroids in Failed Back Surgery Syndrome
Chronic Pain SyndromeThis study will be held on patients with failed back surgery syndrome, the investigators are comparing prolotherapy and steroids injections in caudal epidural space to relieve the pain
HFIT Versus TENS Study for Chronic Low Back and Knee Pain
Chronic PainKnee Pain Chronic2 moreA high-frequency impulse therapy (HFIT) device (Enso, San Francisco, CA) is a portable device for the treatment of musculoskeletal pain. This three-arm randomized controlled trial study compares a HFIT group to a standard transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS) group and a control group.
More Individualized Care: Assessment and Recovery Through Engagement
DepressionAnxiety3 moreThe MI-CARE trial tests 12 months of telephone-based nurse care management for patients with depressive symptoms who take or have taken opioids at some time. The study tests whether offering nurse support to the patient and their primary care team that addresses these things and related issues can improve patients' health and well-being. Eligible subjects are identified automatically using health system data and randomly assigned 50:50 to either a no-contact usual care arm or to the arm offered the MI-CARE program.
Impact of Social Support and Coping Strategies on Post-Surgical Pain
Social SupportCoping Behavior2 moreThe purpose of the study is to evaluate the impact of social support and pain coping strategies in the development and evolution of post-surgical pain.
Chronic Pain and Functional Prognosis After Total Knee Replacement: Continuous Locoregional Analgesia...
Knee Pain ChronicThe prevalence of Chronic Post-Surgical Pain (CPSP) after knee replacement, defined as pain greater than or equal to 4/10 on the visual analogue scale after the third postoperative month, is recognised as high, with an average of 20% (extremes of 7 to 45%). These CPSP, when present, cause poor long-term joint functional prognosis and impaired quality of life for patients. Many predictive, pre-, per- and post-operative factors of these CPSP have been identified in recent years. The most common postoperative risk factor found in the literature is the intensity of early pain. The treatment protocols for this early post-surgical pain are currently and mainly multimodal in nature, combining systemic analgesics (paracetamol, NSAIDs, morphine, gabapentins) and local anaesthetics, administered either in the form of peripheral nerve blocks (continuous or single injection) or in the form of tissue infiltration (TI) performed by the surgeon during the operation. Very few of these techniques have been evaluated for their ability to reduce the incidence of CPSP. Drugs with antihyperalgesic properties such as ketamine or nefopam have been shown to be of no interest, except to reduce the proportion of pain of a neuropathic nature. Only the continuous femoral block has shown, to date, an interest in IT to reduce the incidence of these CPSP. The main objective of this study is to show that a multimodal analgesia protocol based on continuous locoregional analgesia by femoral triangle catheterization could reduce the incidence of chronic post surgical pain compared to a protocol based on tissue infiltration.
Development/Testing of SUMMIT: a Tool to Help Patients Manage Pain While Tapering Opioids
Chronic PainThere are nearly one million veterans being treated with long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) for chronic pain. Numerous short and long-term harms associated with LTOT and mounting evidence suggest they have modest or no benefit. Yet, currently available resources to support veterans to taper are inadequate. Primary care, where most LTOT in VHA is prescribed, is overburdened and straining to meet the challenge of caring for patients with chronic pain. A scalable, relatively inexpensive tapering intervention to support primary care and/or to extend the reach of resource-intensive specialty clinics would be of great benefit to veterans who are not deriving sufficient benefit from LTOT. As such, the goal of this study is to develop and test an interactive, theory-informed, multi-component mobile website to enable veterans to safely taper opioids while managing their pain.