BACKGROUND Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a well-established treatment method for medically refractory depression. ECT has also been used in the treatment of pain for over 50 years. The mechanism of action of ECT is still unknown, although several observations have been made regarding the effect of ECT on pain processes. It has been reported that several patients with medically refractory d...

BACKGROUND The aetiology of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is unknown. Recent evidence suggests that there may be autoantibodies directed against peripheral nerves, but it is unclear whether such autoantibodies are merely biomarkers or whether they cause or contribute to the underlying pathology. The transfer of disease after injection of a patient's serum or IgG fraction into mice ('pas...

Stellate-ganglion block (SGB) is a commonly performed procedure for the treatment of numerous conditions, including upper-extremity complex regional pain syndromes and arterial insufficiency. The appropriate response to SGB includes ipsilateral Horner's syndrome and temperature elevation of affected extremity. Contralateral and bilateral Horner's syndrome following SGB are rarely seen, with onl...

BACKGROUND Complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-I) is characterized by sensory, motor and autonomic abnormalities without electrophysiological evidence of a nerve lesion. OBJECTIVE Aims were to investigate how sensory, autonomic and motor function change in the course of the disease. METHODS 19 CRPS-I patients (17 with acute, 2 with chronic CRPS, mean duration of disease 5.7±8.3, ran...

In spite of pain in the CRPS limb, clinical observations show patients pay little attention to, and fail to care for, their affected limb as if it were not part of their body. Literature describes this phenomenon in terms of neurological neglect-like symptoms. This qualitative study sought to explore the nature of the phenomenon with a view to providing insights into central mechanisms and the ...

OBJECTIVES Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), formerly known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), is a painful, disabling disorder for which treatment is difficult. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of pamidronate in a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial. METHODS Patients referred to our regional multidisciplinary pain management center who fulfilled the I...

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is an invalidating chronic condition subsequent to peripheral lesions. There is growing consensus for a central contribution to CRPS. However, the nature of this central body representation disorder is increasingly debated. Although it has been repeatedly argued that CRPS results in motor neglect of the affected side, visual egocentric reference frame was f...

OBJECTIVES The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine charged an expert panel to examine the evidence basis for ultrasound guidance as a nerve localization tool in the clinical practices of regional anesthesia and interventional pain medicine. METHODS The panel searched, examined, and assessed the literature of ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) from the past 20 y...

Neridronate is an aminobisphosphonate, licensed in Italy for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and Paget's disease of bone (PDB). A characteristic property of neridronate is that it can be administered both intravenously and intramuscularly, providing a useful system for administration in homecare. In this review, we discuss the latest clinical results of neridronate administration ...

In our commentary, we sought to echo and emphasise the caution expressed by Schwartzman and colleagues in their report [1]. We inadvertently implied that the treatment in the Schwartzman study involved daily infusions of ketamine for 10 weeks, rather than daily treatment for 10 days, for which we apologize. The additional methodological details provided by Schwartzman and colleagues are helpful...