Lung cancer is one of the four most prevalent cancers worldwide. Comprehensive patient care includes not only adherence to clinical guidelines to control and when possible cure the disease but also appropriate symptom control. Pain is one of the most prevalent symptoms in patients diagnosed with lung cancer; it can arise from local invasion of chest structures or metastatic disease invading bon...

BACKGROUND Facet joints are a clinically important source of chronic cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine pain. The purpose of this study was to systematically evaluate the prevalence of facet joint pain by spinal region in patients with chronic spine pain referred to an interventional pain management practice. METHODS Five hundred consecutive patients with chronic, non-specific spine pain we...

Cancer pain and chronic non-malignant pain can be difficult to manage and may not respond satisfactorily to standard analgesics. Sequential empiric analgesic trials are usually done to manage individual patients. Experimental human pain models have helped to clarify mechanisms of opioid and adjuvant analgesic actions. Combinations of opioids and adjuvant analgesics better relieve pain than eith...

BACKGROUND The ability to repair tissue via percutaneous means may allow interventional pain physicians to manage a wide variety of diseases including peripheral joint injuries and osteoarthritis. This review will highlight the developments in cellular medicine that may soon permit interventional pain management physicians to treat a much wider variety of clinical conditions and highlight an in...

We read with great interest the article by Glaser and Shah titled “Root Cause Analysis of Paraplegia Following Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections: The Unsafe Triangle (Pain Physician 2010; 13:237-244). For years, the well known “safe triangle” (when performing transforaminal lumbar epidural steroid injection) has been taught and learned by hundreds of interventionists in International S...

132 Since its annual meeting in November 1999, the Association of Pain Management Anesthesiologists (AOPMA), has been faced with the challenge of changing its name. Association of Pain Management Anesthesiologists: is it inclusive or exclusive? Most anesthesiologists say it is inclusive. However, interventional pain physicians from other specialties say it is exclusive. After much debate and co...

CONTEXT Lower back pain is considered to be one of the most common complaints that brings a patient to a pain specialist. Several modalities in interventional pain management are known to be helpful to a patient with chronic low back pain. Proper diagnosis is required for appropriate intervention to provide optimal benefits. From simple trigger point injections for muscular pain to a highly com...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT The prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study design is essential in the interventional spine literature to truly evaluate whether or not a procedure is effective. PURPOSE This article will critically evaluate the highest quality interventional spine literature with strict interpretation of the results of these trials. STUDY DESIGN Review article. ...