P is generally the symptom that brings a person to a healthcare pract i t ioner looking for re l ie f . As informed by the American Pain Society, 45% of the American population seeks medical attention for chronic pain.1 Because complaints of pain are so varied, non-specif ic or diverse, 2 what may be tolerable at one instance suddenly becomes unbearable to the same person in another circumstanc...

BACKGROUND Patient expectations can be difficult to conceptualise and are liable to change with time, health and environmental factors. Patient expectation is known to influence satisfaction, however little is known about the expectations of patients attending for podiatric surgery. This paper will explore the expectations of a large cohort of patients undergoing elective foot surgery. METHOD...

Jason Nickerson and Amir Attaran examine the vast inequities in medical pain relief around the world and argue that the global control of licit narcotics be shifted from the International Narcotic Control Board to WHO.

Introduction. Results from previous studies on acupuncture for labour pain are contradictory and lack important information on methodology. However, studies indicate that acupuncture has a positive effect on women's experiences of labour pain. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of two different acupuncture stimulations, manual or electrical stimulation, compared with stan...

BACKGROUND Characterizing relationships between pain relief and function can inform patient management decisions. This analysis explored graphically the relationship between pain relief and functional improvement in patients with neuropathic pain associated with spinal cord injury in two clinical trials of pregabalin. METHODS This was a post hoc analysis of two randomized, double-blind, clini...

OBJECTIVE Radiosurgery has gained acceptance as a treatment option for trigeminal neuralgia. We report our preliminary multicenter experience treating trigeminal neuralgia with the CyberKnife (Accuray, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA). METHODS A total of 95 patients were treated for idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia between May 2002 and October 2005. Radiosurgical dose and volume parameters were retrospect...

AIMS To determine the ability of cyclodiode laser treatment to relieve discomfort in painful blind glaucomatous eyes. METHODS 30 eyes underwent cyclodiode to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) and relieve pain. Patients graded their pre-cyclodiode and post-cyclodiode pain. RESULTS After a minimum follow up of 6 months, a single cyclodiode treatment lowered mean IOP from 51 mm Hg (95% CI plus...

OBJECTIVES (1) To assess the proportion of patients of triage category 3-5 presenting to the minor side of an urban emergency department who present without taking prior pain relief, and (2) to describe the reasons why they do not take pain relief for their presenting complaint METHOD By patient interview of a convenience sample of 60 adult patients in the setting of an urban emergency depart...

BACKGROUND Population mean changes from clinical trials are difficult to apply to individuals in clinical practice. Responder analysis may be better, but needs validating for level of response and treatment duration. METHODS The numbers of patients with pain relief over baseline (> or =15%, > or =30%, > or =50%, > or =70%) at 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks of treatment were obtained using the WOMAC 100...

for Vets in that what the authors were describing were not clinical guidelines, we wish to highlight that meloxicam is the only NSAID licensed for the relief of postoperative pain following dehorning in calves. This is based on extensive work looking at a variety of measures of assessing pain and wellbeing, including physiological and behavioural parameters. One example of these measures is use...