Clinical Research Directory

Local Anesthetic Infiltration to Prevent Postoperative Pain After Lumbar Surgery

Posterior lumbar arthrodesis causes severe postoperative pain, hampering patients's postoperative reconvalescence especially functional rehabilitation. Efficient and safe methods for postoperative analgesia are, therefore, mandatory. The application of opioids are the most frequently used therapies for postoperative pain relief but it very often results side effects. Local anesthetic wound infiltration is widely recognized as a useful adjunct in a multimodal approach to postoperative pain management. In the setting of spine surgery, a single bolus administration of a local anesthetic is a useful method (with a reduction in parenteral morphine consumption during the 48 first hours) but has a limited effect because of its short duration of action. Prolonged administration through a multi-holed catheter positioned by the surgeon at the end of the procedure could increase the duration of action and may thereby improve the efficacy of local wound infiltration. Easy and effective, this new modality of administration has expanded the indications for parietal infiltrations toward major painful procedures. We designed this study to determine whether local anesthetic (compared with saline solution) continuous wound infiltration during the first two days after posterior lumbar arthrodesis on degenerative spine, could improve postoperative analgesia at short-term but particularly at mid-term (two months) and long-term (six months), in order to decrease postoperative lumbar pains (resulting in best life quality, opioid consumption limited and rehabilitation hastened) and postoperative hyperalgesia areas. The postoperative analgesic and antihyperalgesic efficacies; the postoperative rehabilitation at mid-term and long term, and the safety of opioid administration and multi-holed parietal catheter will be compared in the two groups (control and study).

STTEPP: Safety, Tolerability and Dose Limiting Toxicity of Lacosamide in Patients With Painful Chronic Pancreatitis

The investigators propose to conduct a dose-escalation trial of an FDA-approved antiepileptic drug, lacosamide, added to opioid therapy in patients with chronic abdominal pain from chronic pancreatitis (CP). This pilot trial will test the feasibility of the study design and provide reassurance regarding the tolerability and safety of lacosamide used concomitantly with opioids in this patient population to reduce the condition known clinically as opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH).

Investigation on the Status Quo of Hyperalgesia in Patients After Thoracoscopic Operation and Study on the Effect of Intraoperative Intervention

To explore the status quo and influencing factors of hyperpain in patients after thoracoscopic surgery, and to explore the effect of earphone sound isolation during combined operation of flurbiprofen axidate and binaural beat music played by earphone during combined operation on the intervention of hyperpain after thoracoscopic surgery.

Electroacupuncture Pain Treatment, Mechanical Hyperalgesia, Quality of Life & Expression of Mu+ B Cells in Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a complex, multifactorial syndrome characterized by widespread chronic pain with hyperal- gesia and allodynia and a constellation of somatic and psychological manifestations, including fatigue, sleep dis- orders, depression, anxiety, gastrointestinal and cognitive disorders. FM is now recognized as one of the most common chronic pain conditions and its management remains a challenge for patients and healthcare profes- sionals. The fact that FM is associated with chronic pain without any obvious peripheral tissue damage has given rise to the concept of nociplastic pain with evidence of dysfunction in mono-aminergic neurotransmission, lead- ing to elevated levels of excitatory neurotransmitters and decreased levels of serotonin and norepinephrine in the spinal cord at the level of descending anti-nociceptive pathways. Additionally, dopamine dysregulation and altered activity of endogenous cerebral opioids have been observed in FM. Recent European guidelines on FM treatment emphasize that there should be a comprehensive assessment of patient's pain, function and psychosocial context. It is recognized that there are profound and fundamental problems associated with the pain assessment tools in common use, as most of these represent an attempt to reduce a multidimensional experience to a coarse unidimensional measure. Use of multiple tools for sub- jective and objective assessment of pain may reflect more accurately patient's pain experience. Furthermore, tracing a biologic pain marker in FM patients would facilitate both the initial assessment of pain and the re- sponse to treatment. Management of pain in FM patients should focus first on non-pharmacological modalities. Acupuncture therapy is an effective and safe treatment and exerts its analgesic effect through activation of pe- ripheral and central pain control systems with the release of β-endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins, serotonin, norepinephrine, γ-aminobutyric acid or ATP. The aim of our study is to assess initially reported pain and evaluate the effectiveness of electroacupuncture (with or without diet modifications) on the "whole experience of pain" in FM patients in a multimodel assessment frame.