An increasing number of parturients suffering from ischaemic heart disease require anaesthetic care for labour and vaginal delivery. We present the case of a 42-year-old gravida who had previously suffered a myocardial infarction and undergone coronary artery bypass grafting. Management was directed toward prevention of haemodynamic instability by alleviation of pain and stress while minimizing...

PURPOSE To examine the influence of two patellofemoral braces on pain response, patellar alignment, and patellofemoral joint contact area in persons with patellofemoral pain. METHODS Fifteen women between the ages of 18 and 45 yr with a diagnosis of patellofemoral pain participated. After the assessment of pain response using a visual analog scale, subjects underwent axial plane magnetic reso...

BACKGROUND Epidural neuroplasty seems to be one of the promising minimally invasive techniques for adhesiolysis in patients with chronic sciatica with or without low back pain. However, because no data exist from randomized studies the aim was to investigate whether this procedure is superior to conservative treatment with physiotherapy. METHODS A total of 99 patients with chronic low back pa...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of leg press and leg press with hip adduction exercise training on patellar alignment and pain in patients with patellofemoral pain (PFP). [Subjects and Methods] Seventeen patients participated in this study. Eight weeks of leg press or leg press with hip adduction training, including progressive lower-limb weight-training and st...

Surgery for chronic pancreatitis has gained wide acceptance because of excellent results regarding pain alleviation and control of complications arising from adjacent organs. After the introduction of the duodenum preserving pancreatic head resection by Beger almost three decades ago, many modifications have been proposed, evaluated and compared. This article reviews the variety of operations, ...

Twenty-two patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery were entered into a randomized, double-blind study to receive extradural (T7-T8) 0.5% bupivacaine 9 ml followed by 25 mg h-1 with or without additional extradural morphine (bolus 4 mg plus 0.5 mg h-1), for 16 h after operation. Addition of morphine was associated with total alleviation of pain, and a stable level of sensory analgesia, but n...

Non-thermal biological effect of modulated radio frequency electromagnetic fields on vasodilatation of anesthetized Xenopus laevis was demonstrated. Irradiated electromagnetic field was 10 MHz, 7.3 mG, 2.19 V/m, pulsed wave with 10 kHz burst rate. The vasodilatory effect was specific for pulsed waves because magnitude of this effect depended on duty ratio and no effect was observed for continuo...

Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is a toxin produced by the naturally-occurring Clostridium botulinum that causes botulism. The potential of BoNT/A as a useful medical intervention was discovered by scientists developing a vaccine to protect against botulism. They found that, when injected into a muscle, BoNT/A causes a flaccid paralysis. Following this discovery, BoNT/A has been used for many y...