BACKGROUND Pain, the most common reasons for physician consultation, is a major symptom in many medical conditions that can significantly interfere with a person's life quality and general functioning. Almost all painkillers have its untoward effects. Therefore, seeking for a safe medication for pain relieve is notable nowadays. Paeonia lactiflora is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine. P...

Binding a critical pentapeptide region on the scaffolding protein filamin A regulates signaling of mu opioid receptors (MORs) so that their activation should not result in the opioid tolerance, dependence and addiction associated with current opioid painkillers. Additionally, we show that compounds that bind this site on filamin A reduce release of inflammatory cytokines. PTI-609 is a new chemi...

Placebos are often used by clinicians, usually deceptively and with little rationale or evidence of benefit, making their use ethically problematic. In contrast with their typical current use, a provocative line of research suggests that placebos can be intentionally exploited to extend analgesic therapeutic effects. Is it possible to extend the effects of drug treatments by interspersing place...

PURPOSE The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether it was feasible and safe to mobilize patients shortly after lumbar disc surgery with the objective of reducing postoperative complications and allowing shorter hospitalization. DESIGN Randomized controlled study. METHOD The patients were randomized into two groups, intervention and control groups. Those in the intervention group...

The issue of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is one that is very close to my heart – I suffered from it for 35 years until the onset of the menopause, and I regularly receive letters from women whose life problems are underpinned by premenstrual stress. Happily, the medical profession has taken huge strides forward in recent years not only in acknowledging the syndrome, but also in diagnosing and t...

BACKGROUND To study causal associations between factors occurring during pregnancy, birth, and infancy and global quality of life (QOL) in adulthood 31-33 years later. MATERIAL/METHODS Prospective study from the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61. Two sets of questionnaires, one filled out by physicians during pregnancy, birth, and infancy and a validated, self-administered questionnai...

OBJECTIVE Chronic pains after lateral thoracotomy are present in up to 40% of cases. Chronic sequels after thoracoscopy are less common, but nevertheless, a cause for complaints by patients. Pain often reflects a recurrence of malign disease. For this reason, we only investigated patients with benign disease. METHODS We retrospectively investigated the incidence of chronic sequels in a consec...

OBJECTIVE To study the efficacy, safety and patient satisfaction of psoas compartment and caudal epidural steroid injection in patients with spinal stenosis and lumbosaccral radiculopathy. METHODS Patients with a diagnosis of spinal stenosis and lumbosaccral radiculopathy having visual analogue score (VAS) less than five were included in the study. Bilateral psoas compartment and caudal epidu...

OBJECTIVE. To present and evaluate initial perioperative experience with a new surgical treatment for post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence. Method: Between May 2008 and December 2010, an adjustable, hydraulic substitute sphincter system (ATOMS) was implanted in a series of 120 patients. In 105 of these 120 procedures, implantation was carried out using an outside-in technique. Adjustments vi...

AIM To describe the performance of 450 nm diode laser in oral surgery procedures. METHODS The case described consisted of the removal of a lower lip fibroma through a blue diode laser (λ = 450 nm). RESULTS The efficacy of this device, even at very low power (1W, CW), allows us to obtain very high intra and postoperative comfort for the patient, even with just topical anaesthesia and without...