Pain Distribution Research Articles

IS DISTRIBUTION OF PAIN RELATED WITH CENTRAL SENSITIZATION IN PATIENTS WITH LOWER LIMB OSTEOARTHRITIS?

Design: Cross-sectional study. Background: Osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions in our society. A growing number of studies suggest the existence of central sensitization (CS) in a subgroup of osteoarthritic patients. One of the criteria included for the classification of CS pain is the expanded distribution of pain. As this criterion is a well-recognized sign of CS, a digital pain drawing (DPD) analysis would be useful to easily identify possible extended areas of pain distribution (PD) in patients with OA. Objective: To study the relationship between the percentage of distribution of pain in the lower limb for both knee and hip, in patients before hip or knee arthroplasty, and the Central Sensitization Inventory Questionnaire. Methods: Twenty women (mean [Formula: see text] years) with diagnosed chronic (over 3 months) knee ([Formula: see text]) and hip ([Formula: see text]) OA participated in the study, with intensity of pain from mild to severe, meaning pain [Formula: see text]/10 using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). The PD was analyzed via software created for this research, called “Pain Distribution Application”. Results: A statistically significant positive correlation between CSI and PD to the lower extremity OA (hip and knee) ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) was found. The distribution of pain has a linear correlation with the results in CSI, of patients who tested positive for CS, i.e. with a score of [Formula: see text]. Conclusions: As the distribution of pain on the surface of the body (diffusion) increases, so does the score of people who test positive for CSI. Our results showed that calculating the distribution of pain with our application may have a utility as a CS screening tool. The PD threshold of 10% of the body area is an index for CS for chronic pain lower limb OA patients.

Prospective Assessment of Postoperative Pain in Patients Undergoing Minimally Invasive Video-Assisted versus Minimally Invasive Open Thyroidectomy

Introduction: Reduced invasiveness has a potential benefit of reduced postoperative pain however there is a relative paucity of prospectivedata to confirm this presumption. The analysis of this prospective study was to compare pain score results in patients who underwentminimally invasive video-assisted (MIVAT) versus minimally invasive open thyroidectomy (MIT) and in doing so further extrapolate thepotential advantages of video-assisted thyroid surgery.Materials and methods: A total of 98 patients post minimally invasive thyroidectomy from January 1st to December 31st 2008 are thesubject matter of this study. Pain scores (0-10) assigned by the patients shortly after the thyroidectomy and after 24 hours postoperativeforms the basic outcome variable. For statistical comparison of the distributions of the pain scores between patients the Kolmogrov-Smirnov (KS) test was employed.Results: The comparison pain score distribution using the KS test for postoperative assessment yielded a Z-value of 2.84 (P < 0.001).The comparison pain score distribution at 24 hours yielded a Z-value of 1.48 (P < 0.05). These results imply the difference in distributionsof pain scores among MIT and MIVAT group to be statistically significant.Conclusions: We concluded that video-assisted thyroidectomy appears to reduce the pain in patients shortly after the operation and24 hours postoperative. The reduction is statistically significant. Male patients appear to report less pain compared to their female counterparts.