Category Archives: Surgery

Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery for Leg or Back Pain Linked to Improved Pain Relief and Function

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Dr. Mohamad Bydon MD
Professor of Neurosurgery
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota

:Dr. Bydon MD

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Patients presenting with back or leg pain due to degenerative lumbar spine disease often undergo spinal fusion to mitigate the symptoms and halt the progression of the disease.

PainRelief.com: What are the main findings?

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in the lumbar spine encompasses a variety of techniques, such as percutaneous screw placement and operation via tubular retractors, and aims to limit the distortion of patients’ anatomy as much as possible. Eventually, compared to open fusion, MIS fusion is associated with decreased muscle destruction, incision size, and time-to-mobilization.

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Physical Therapy After Knee Replacement Linked to Less Long Term Opioids for Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Deepak Kumar, PT, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy
Assistant Professor, BU School of Medicine
Director, Movement & Applied Imaging Lab

Dr. Kumar

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?

Response: We investigated the association of physical therapy interventions with long-term opioid use in people who undergo total knee replacement surgery.   For people with advanced osteoarthritis, total knee replacement is the only option. The number of total knee replacement surgeries has been increasing and is expected to rise exponentially over the next few years with an aging population and rising rates of obesity. However, up to a third of patients continue to experience knee pain after this surgery. Also, a significant proportion of people become long-term opioid users after total knee replacement. Reliance on opioids may reflect a failure of pain management in these patients. Given that physical therapy interventions are known to be effective at managing pain due to knee osteoarthritis, we wanted to study whether physical therapy before or after surgery may reduce the likelihood of long-term opioid use.

We used real-world data from insurance claims for this study. In our cohort of about 67,000 patients who underwent knee replacement between 2001-2016, we observed that, receiving physical therapy within 90 days before surgery or outpatient physical therapy within 90 days after surgery were both related to lower likelihood of long-term opioid use later. We also observed that initiating outpatient physical therapy within 30 days and 6 or more sessions of physical therapy were associated with reduced likelihood of long-term opioid use compared to later initiation or fewer PT sessions, respectively. However, we did not see an association between type of physical therapy. i.e., active (e.g., exercsise) vs. passive (e.g., TENS) and long-term opioid use.

Importantly, most of our findings were consistent for people who had or had not used opioids previously. We also were able to account of a larger number of potential factors that could confound these associations because of the large sample size. However, there are limitations to our work. Since we only had access to insurance claims data but not to health records, we are unable to make any inferences about association of physical therapy with pain or quality of life, etc.

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Caution Should Be Taken with Hip Steroid Injections For Arthritis Pain Relief

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Kanu M. Okike, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
The Hawaii Permanente Medical Group

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?

Response: Hip corticosteroid injections are a common treatment for osteoarthritis and other hip conditions.  Recently, isolated case reports have raised the question of whether hip corticosteroid injections could be associated with rapid progression of the arthritis process – a condition known as rapidly destructive hip disease (RDHD).

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Multimodal Analgesia For Pain Relief After Joint Replacement

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Joseph Albert Karam, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Orthopaedic Surgery
Associate Program Director, Orthopaedic Surgery Residency
The University of Illinois at Chicago

Joseph-Karam
Dr. Karam

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?Would you describe the multimodal pain plan?

Response: Pain after joint replacement surgery has been historically managed by protocols centered on opioid medication. Given the side effects associated with these medications, the risk for long term addiction and evidence showing that opioids are not necessarily the best at treating pain perioperatively in joint replacement, multimodal pain management protocols have been established. These protocols utilize different families of medications that target pain at different steps in the pain pathway.

The exact protocol varies from one institution to the other but typically include systemic agents such as acetaminophen, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories/COX-2 inhibitors, gabapentinoids, corticosteroids, as well as loco-regional interventions such as local infiltration analgesia and regional nerve blocks. ‘Pre-emptive analgesia’ which most commonly uses a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, acetaminophen and/or a gabapentinoid has also been demonstrated to play a key role. Additional measures such as NMDA antagonists and epidural catheters can also be used in select cases. Non-pharmacological treatments such as cryotherapy, cryoneurolysis and electrical nerve stimulation have also been described. Our preferred institutional protocol is detailed in the paper.

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No Decrease in Pain Relief With Less Opioids After Surgery

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Ryan Howard, MD
Academic Development Time Year 1
Resident, General Surgery
University of Michigan

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Opioids are commonly prescribed to control pain after surgery, but they also carry significant risks such as overdose, long-term dependence, and diversion into the community. While some have advocated for decreasing or eliminating opioids from postoperative pain control regimens, others are concerned that this would lead to uncontrolled pain and dissatisfied patients. To study whether that’s true, we compared two groups of patients undergoing the same surgical procedures. One group received “opioid-sparing” prescriptions after surgery and the other group received “normal-sized” prescriptions.

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Conditioned Open-Label Placebos Provide Pain Relief in Some Post-Surgical Patients

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Kristin Schreiber, MD, PhD
Neuroscientist and Clinical Regional Anesthesiologist
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Anesthesia
Harvard Medical School

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: Traditionally, the placebo effect has involved deceiving patients, where they think they may be taking a real medication. “Open-label placebos” are when placebos are given to patients, and patient are told that they are in fact a placebo. Recent research has suggested that these open-label placebos may actually reduce a number of symptoms in patients, including chronic low back pain. We were interested whether this strategy could be used to help reduce pain and opioid use around the time of surgery. We decided to combine the use of OLP with a conditioning approach, so that anytime a patient took an opioid analgesic, they would take the open-label placebo, so that the OLP pills would be associated with pain relief. That way when patients took them on their own, it would serve to trigger an expectation of pain relief, which is thought to at least partially explain the placebo effect.  

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Understanding Back Pain During Neuroendovascular Procedures

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

Adnan Qureshi, MD
Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Institute
Department of Neurology
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO

Dr. Qureshi

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Optimizing of patient experience is a very important goal for any procedure. Neuro Endovascular procedures are unique because most of them are performed awake to perform repeated neurological examinations during the procedure. The angiographic tables have to be made of unique stiff material to ensure X rays can pass through and any movement during procedure can distort images. We believe understanding the factors that can be improved upon given the unique settings remains an important goal of the specialty. 

Our research broadens our understanding of complications of the procedures. Previous studies have look at the risk of stroke or bleeding but not complications like back pain which are far more common.

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Recorded Music plus Text During Anesthesia Reduced Need for Pain Medication

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Ernil Hansen
Department of Anesthesiology
University Hospital Regensburg
Regensburg, Germany

Prof. Dr. Hansen

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: It is becoming more and more clear that besides drugs and surgery it is communication that makes therapy effective. A meta-analysis we had conducted recently, suggested some beneficial effects of taped words played during surgery in older studies.

Our current study on 385 patients showed evidence that a text based on hypnotherapeutic principles an reduce postoperative pain and use of opioids. Pain within the first 24h after surgery decreased by 25%, opioid requirement by 34%. Six patients needed to be treated to save one patient from opioid exposure at all. High demand for analgesics was reduced by 41%. 

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Traditional and Battlefield Acupuncture Provide Post-Op Pain Relief and Reduced Need for Opioids

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PainRelief.com Interview with:

  • Brinda Krish, D.O., lead author of the study and an anesthesiology resident at Detroit Medical Center.
  • Padmavathi Patel, M.D., principal investigator of the study and Medical Director, Northstar Anesthesia at John D. Dingell Veteran Hospital.

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?

Dr. Padmavathi Patel: Pain is a major contributor to health care costs and a common cause of long-term disability (about  $61.2 billion/year) in lost productivity due to pain.

acupuncture

76.2 million Americans (one in four) have suffered from pain that lasts longer than 24 hours (2013).

Numerous literature such as:

1. “Use of prescription opioids in the treatment of pain has increased notably over recent decades.”

2. “Rates of death from prescribed opioids increased four fold between 2000 and 2014.”

3. “16,651 opioid related deaths in 2010.”

4. “The problem of opioid overuse and dependence is seen in the military as well as in civilian.”

-Opioid-related side effects could lead to a delay in recovery.
-Pain control is more challenging for military population.
-More extensive injuries and greater pain severity is seen in survivors of combat- related blast injuries compared to those of non-blast civilians and also they require larger opioid doses.
-Pain is a very common patient complaint, both in veteran and non-veteran populations.
-Among the 5.7 million unique patients seen annually with in the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), more than half of these patients experience chronic pain.

In 2017, The DVA and the United States Department of Defense (DoD) published an updated guidelines on opioid therapy for chronic pain that strongly recommends against initiation of long-term opioid use and recommends alternatives, including non-pharmacologic therapy, such as Acupuncture, which has been shown to be effective for treating a variety of painful conditions.

Acupuncture techniques have been in existence for centuries, with roots tied to Eastern Asia. Traditional acupuncture involves the insertion of very thin needles at specific trigger points around the body to relieve pain. Battlefield acupuncture (BFA), developed by a U.S. Air Force doctor uses needles that are inserted at various trigger points in the ear. In 2013, $5.4 million was awarded to the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to teach BFA to healthcare providers in both the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs and assess it.  In light of the opioid epidemic, there is a strong need to decrease perioperative opioid use. Opioid use due to postoperative pain along with perioperative anxiety has been linked to increased length of hospital stay, increased morbidity and mortality, and ultimately higher healthcare costs.

Battlefield acupuncture was introduced into Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the last few years and in VHA, clinicians of various disciplines (MDs, DOs, PAs, nurse-practitioners), can currently obtain clinical privilege to provide it.

I received the Battlefield acupuncture training at John D. Dingell VA medical Center, Detroit and I was surprised with the outcomes of chronic pain patients. As an anesthesiologist I know pain after the surgery is common, often severe and largely unnecessary. I discussed these concerns with the surgeons and created the protocol to use BFA for general surgical patients and traditional acupuncture for hip replacement patients as an adjuvant to the standard protocol for acute post-surgical pain control.

Effective relief of postoperative pain is vital. Such pain probably prolongs hospital stay, as it can affect all the organ systems with side effects. Post op pain remains grossly under treated, with up to 70% of patients reporting moderate to severe pain following surgery.

Multimodal pain control not only can result in earlier discharge from hospital, but it may also reduce the onset of chronic pain syndromes.

2 studies performed TA (n=21), Controls given sham acupuncture (n=21).  BFA (n=28), Controls given sham acupuncture (n=36). Measured variables included post-operative opioid requirements, postoperative pain, the incidence of PONV, and patient satisfaction scores

Key conclusions use of Battlefield acupuncture and Traditional acupuncture reduced post-operative opioid requirements, post-operative pain scores (pain intensity) and increased patient satisfaction scores.  BFA also reduced PONV in patients.  

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Are Invasive Procedures Effective for Chronic Pain Relief? A Systematic Review

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PainRelief.com Interview with:
Wayne B. Jonas, MD
Executive Director
Samueli Integrative Health Programs, H&S Ventures,
Alexandria, VA

PainRelief.com:  What is the background for this study?

Response: The search for non-drug approaches to chronic pain is a major recommendation in many recent guidelines for both pain management and reduction in the use of opioids. Surgical and invasive procedures are non-drug approaches often used for pain conditions like back pain and arthritis, so good evidence is needed to determine the safety and efficacy of these procedures. Properly done randomized, placebo-controlled trials are the best way (the gold standard) to get that evidence, so we did a thorough evaluation of such research, using standard systematic review and meta-analysis methods.

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