The etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is unknown and no conventional medicine therapies are available. This report presents a clinical case of a patient suffering from CFS who was cured by traditional Korean medicine. A 33-year-old female patient had to take time off work because of terrible fatigue symptoms that did not respond to conventional treatments. Her disorder was significantl...

In order to allocate the healthcare resource, triage classification system plays an important role in assessing the severity of illness of the boarding patient at emergency department. The self-report pain intensity numerical-rating scale (NRS) is one of the major modifiers of the current triage system based on the Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale (TTAS). The validity and reliability of self-repo...

The aim of this work was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Numerical Rating Scale-11 (NRS-11) when used to assess pediatric pain intensity. We performed two studies: 175 schoolchildren, aged 8-12, participated in Study 1 and 63 children undergoing surgery and aged 6-16, participated in Study 2. The NRS-11 showed (a) adequate convergent construct validity when correlated with the Fa...

OBJECTIVE We assessed the analgesic effect and feasibility of low-dose ketamine combined with a reduced dose of hydromorphone for emergency department (ED) patients with severe pain. METHODS This was a prospective observational study of adult patients with severe pain at an urban public hospital. We administered 0.5 mg of intravenous (IV) hydromorphone and 15 mg of IV ketamine, followed by op...

OBJECTIVE IA injections of SIJs with corticosteroids are often performed in patients suffering from low back pain due to active sacroiliitis. However, SIJ injections are technically demanding, and therefore the clinical outcome of ultrasound-guided corticosteroid SIJ injections was analysed in relation to the accuracy of the injection. METHODS Ultrasound-guided injections were performed with ...

Background Patient satisfaction with postoperative pain management is an important quality indicator in patient health care, but its determinants are poorly understood. Here, we examined the contribution of the discrepancy between an individual's estimated acceptable and actual postoperative pain scores to the overall satisfaction with pain treatment. Findings A total of 93 surgical patients ...

BACKGROUND Interlaminar epidural steroid injection (ESI) is a well-established intervention to improve radicular leg pain. However, few studies have demonstrated the prognostic factors for interlaminar ESI. OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical effectiveness and prognostic indicators of parasagittal interlaminar ESI during a 2-week follow-up. STUDY DESIGN Prospective evaluation. SETTING A...

BACKGROUND The analgesia/nociception index (ANI), a 0-100 non-invasive index calculated from heart rate variability, reflects the analgesia/nociception balance during general anaesthesia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ANI in the assessment of immediate postoperative pain in adult patients undergoing general anaesthesia. METHODS Two-hundred patients undergoing scheduled surgery or ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of the periodontal disease (PD), a chronic infection, in patients with chronic craniofacial pain complaints. METHOD Twenty patients with chronic craniofacial pain and PD (CFP group) and 20 patients with PD (PD group) were assessed before and after periodontal treatment (baseline, 30 and 180 days after treatment). The parameters evaluated were: plaque index,...

PURPOSE To compare total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients who received continuous femoral nerve block (FNB) with local anaesthetics through a catheter versus patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with intravenous morphine. METHODS 50 women and 10 men aged 51 to 84 years with matched characteristics underwent TKA and received either continuous FNB with local anaesthetics through a catheter (n=30)...