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Filter by:Background Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is characterized by intense pain, loss of function, and associated with motor, trophic, sudomotor, and/or vasomotor changes of the affected extremity. Upper extremity CRPS is seen frequently in electrodiagnostic, neurology, and musculoskeletal clinics and occurs in up to one-third of patients who have undergone common surgical procedures (i.e. carpal tunnel surgery). To date, there is a limited understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of CRPS. As a consequence, few effective treatment options are available. Peripheral nerve blocks have proven to be successful in reducing pain for several musculoskeletal and neurologic conditions. Similarly, this procedure could be used to block somatic and autonomic sensory fibers which are thought to contribute to CRPS. In a small exploratory study, investigators found peripheral nerve blocks in the upper extremity (suprascapular and median nerves) were well-tolerated in patients with CRPS and resulted in a 56% and 37% pain reduction in the shoulder and hand 2 weeks after injection, respectively. While this is highly encouraging, large randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) are necessary to demonstrate effectiveness and safety of nerve blocks for this population before it is accepted into clinical practice. This proposal is a phase II feasibility study that will test the critical elements necessary for performing such a RCT. Methods The investigators will recruit participants (≥18 years old) from The Ottawa Hospital, Bruyère Continuing Care (Elisabeth Bruyère Hospital, St-Vincent Hospital), and Providence Care Hospital (Kingston, ON), meeting the well-established clinical Budapest criteria for upper extremity CRPS and having a visual analog scale (VAS) pain score of at least 40 mm (to avoid flooring effect). Participants will be block-randomized by the Ottawa Methods Centre to receive injections of either A) intervention (suprascapular, median, and ulnar nerves) with bupivacaine and triamcinolone acetonide, or B) placebo (saline). All participants will receive standard care for CRPS. Primary outcomes will focus on crucial methodologic aspects for the future RCT, including: (1) level of recruitment, (2) rate of acceptance from eligible patients to the randomization procedure, (3) blinding efficacy, (4) degree of patient retention, (5) rate of data completion, and (6) rate of adverse events for both the placebo and intervention groups.
Doctors sometimes treat chronic pain with devices that send mild electrical currents into the spinal cord. This type of treatment is referred to as neurostimulation. A common form of neurostimulation therapy is spinal cord stimulation (SCS). In this study, researchers want to learn more about how SCS affects pain processing and relieves pain. The researchers will examine multiple forms of SCS in chronic pain patients who are receiving SCS from their own doctors as part of their standard of care. During the study, participants will be asked to complete a variety of evaluations at certain time points.
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a post-traumatic chronic pain condition characterized by pain and other symptoms typically affecting a distal limb. Relatively little is known about the prognosis of the course of CRPS .Currently there is no specific test to diagnose CRPS. The primary objective of the study is to investigate prospectively the evolution of CRPS and the impact of the psychosocial factors on health status, recovery, quality of life, and working status of CRPS patients. The secondary objective of the study is to measure blood parameters in CRPS patients to investigate their evolution during the course of CRPS, and maybe to identify distinctive biomarkers associate with CRPS and that could be potential candidate for diagnosis.
Chronic pain affects 1 in 4 US adults, and many cases are resistant to almost any treatment. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) holds promise as a new option for patients suffering from treatment-resistant chronic pain, but traditional approaches target only brain regions involved in one aspect of the pain experience and provide continuous 24/7 brain stimulation which may lose effect over time. By developing new technology that targets multiple, complimentary brain regions in an adaptive fashion, the investigators will test a new therapy for chronic pain that has potential for better, more enduring analgesia.
In the present study, we aim to investigate the effect of buprenorphine on neuroinflammation in patients with complex regional pain syndrome, using [11C]-(R)-PK11195 PET.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is one of the most commonly undertaken neuromodulatory surgery techniques in the treatment of neuropathic pain. The indication for SCS is an ineffective conservative treatment of chronic pain syndromes. The effectiveness of SCS in the case of neuropathic pain is high. The positive result of SCS treatment is the reduction of previous painful symptoms by min. 50% and / or a reduction in the amount of taken analgesics and an improvement in the quality of life including sleep quality. Long-term studies estimate that in a properly selected group of patients more than 50% of patients achieve pain reduction by the required 50% and about 60% - 70% have an improvement in the quality of life and a reduction of pain. The efficacy of SCS in different modes of stimulation is evaluated. Patients receive four different types of stimulation for 2-week period - not knowing what kind of stimulation it is. It is said that in one type of stimulation they would feel parestesias and in other three they would not. Patients are not informed that beside tonic, burst and high frequency stimulation, the fourth is an off stimulation to check for placebo effect. The test is double-blinded
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a severe and complex chronic pain condition in children. Many psychosocial factors impact its development and recovery. CRPS has a strong central component, which is reflected by structural and functional changes in the brain. However, the interaction between these cerebral changes and trajectory of recovery has been seldom investigated to date. Furthermore, interactions between cerebral changes and psychosocial factors, which might affect trajectory of recovery, are unknown. The aim of this study is to identify the psychosocial factors and cerebral changes that predict the trajectory of recovery from CRPS. Children between the ages of 10 and 17 years will be enrolled with one of their parents or legal guardians for this study. Three populations will be recruited: patients with CRPS undergoing treatment at the Functional Independence Restoration Program (FIRST), patients with CRPS undergoing treatment at the Pain Management Center and matching healthy controls. Participants will undergo three sessions: the first session will be scheduled immediately before or as soon as possible at the beginning of the patients' treatment; the second session will take place at the end of the patients' treatment; the last session will be scheduled six months post-treatment. The timing of the sessions of the healthy participants will follow a schedule similar to the FIRST patients. Each session will last approximately three hours and include acquisition of psychosocial, psychophysical, and brain imaging data in the child participants, as well as acquisition of psychosocial data in the parent participants.
SPECIFIC AIMS Pain in both youth and adults is a complex, subjective and personal experience, and remains poorly understood. One particularly perplexing dimension of some forms of pain is the tendency of pain to spread outside of an affected body site to adjacent location, and then to unaffected body sites. Such widespread pain may reflect an altered spatial tuning of somatosensory processing, such that lateral inhibition is diminished, thereby allowing pain to spread. To date, no therapies exist which are designed specifically to diminish or even reverse the spatial spread of pain. However, training in two-point discrimination holds the potential to retune spatial aspects of somatosensory processing and may represent a novel therapy for widespread pain. Thus, the present investigation will test the following aims: Aim 1. Do youth with chronic pain have disrupted spatial tuning of somatosensory processing? Deficits in two point tactile discrimination have long been noted in adults with chronic pain, but such deficits remain poorly documented in pediatric chronic pain patients. In order to determine if such deficits exist, youth with both chronic pain and healthy youth will undergo assessment of two point discrimination thresholds. Aim 2. Does two-point discrimination training result in diminished pain and disability in youth with somatic pain? After initial characterization of tactile discrimination thresholds, youth with chronic pain will participate in multiple sessions of either two-point discrimination training or a single-point spatially-directed attentional control condition. Training will involve up to 9 additional sessions. Efficacy of training will be assessed by 1) reductions in the spatial extent of pain, 2) reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness, and 3) reductions in pain-related disability.
Objective: The primary aim is to evaluate the efficacy of botulinum toxin A in reducing overall limb pain in patients with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). Additionally the investigators would like to see if quality of life is improved and disability scores decreased. Research Design: This is a double blinded, randomized cross-over study that will be conducted over a 7 month period. It is a pilot study that will include twenty subjects recruited from the Neurology CRPS clinic at VA Connecticut and from outside VA hospitals within a 150 mile radius. Subjects will receive an intramuscular injection Treatment A which is only 1% lidocaine or Treatment B which is mixture of botulinum toxin A + 1% lidocaine in the affected limb only. This is a cross over study where patients will receive Treatment A or B initially during the first of four study visits and during the third study visit while receive whichever treatment not given during the first visit. Dr. Sameer Ali, VA neurology fellow, will be blinded when administering the treatments. Dr. Hajime Tokuno, VA neurologist who is the principal investigator of the trial will prepare the treatments. Clinical pharmacy will be randomizing the treatments. Dr. Tokuno will not be blinded as he needs to know which treatment has been given in case of complications. Impact/Significance: The significance of this study is the possible discovery of a new, safer, less invasive, and more efficacious therapeutic option for patients suffering from CRPS. Currently medical management with neuropathic pain meds, interventions such as sympathetic nerve blocks and ketamine infusion has helped some patients and not others. The investigators are trying to see whether either of the two treatments and especially the treatment with botulinum toxin may be a more viable alternative than existing modalities.
The objective of this prospective, observational study is to determine the association between the composition of the gut microbiota and the severity and persistence of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome symptoms (Study A). The objective of Study B, a longitudinal study of microbiota biomarkers of patients with newly diagnosed CRPS is to determine if the researchers can predict which patients are more likely to recover compared to those who do not. A secondary objective of both studies is to examine cognitive flexibility in relation to outcomes (study A and B).