Title
Author
DOI
Article Type
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Audit of patients of the pain clinic of the University Hospital of Heraklion with neuropathic pain during the period 2019–2020
1Department of Anaesthesiology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Greece
2Medical School, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece
DOI: 10.22514/sv.2021.158 Vol.17,Issue S1,September 2021 pp.11-11
Submitted: 26 August 2021 Accepted: 06 September 2021
Published: 15 September 2021
*Corresponding Author(s): Vasileia Nyktari E-mail: vnyktari@gmail.com
Introduction: Neuropathic pain is caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory system and affects 7–10% of the population [1–3]. The aim of this study was the analysis of patients referred with neuropathic pain to the University Hospital of Heraklion pain clinic (2019–2020) in terms of characteristics, underlying disease, treatment and response to treatment.
Methods: Patients diagnosed with neuropathic pain (Pain Detect questionnaire) were recruited. Pain intensity was assessed using NAS. Data were in the form of qualitative or quantitative variables and were expressed as frequencies and % frequencies. The x2 test was used to detect statistically significant differences in percentages or correlations between the categorical variables. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 (IBM Corp., Chicago, IL, USA). Acceptance limit was set to α = 0.05.
Results: 120 patients (age 64.0 ± 15.1 years, men 55.8%, cancer history 50%) were included. Merely neuropathic pain occurred in 43.3% of patients. Patients were allocated into two groups: benign pain group —with herpes zoster (23%) and spine diseases (14%) as the most frequent causes—and malignant pain group (mainly due to gynaecological, breast or lung cancer). The groups did not differ in the main symptoms—burning (46.7%), allodynia (23.3%), hyperalgesia (28.3%)—nor in the pain location (most often in lower extremities and pelvis). Both groups experienced sleep disorders—poorer sleep quality in malignant pain (36.7% vs 16.7%)—and poor psychological state (33.9% in benign, 28.8% in malignant pain). NSAIDs use was more common in benign (58.3% vs 15.9%, p < 0.001), while antidepressants more common in malignant pain (61.7% vs 28.3%, p < 0.001). Both groups reported reduction in VAScore >30% following initial treatment and a corresponding reduction in further modification.
Conclusions: Most patients with neuropathic pain were >50 years old, reported a burning sensation and experienced effects on quality of life (quality of sleep, psychological state).
Emmanouela Koutoulaki,Amalia Mathioudaki,Vasileia Nyktari,Georgios Stefanakis,Periklis Vasilos,Stavroula Ilia,Georgios Frantzeskos,Alexandra Papaioannou. Audit of patients of the pain clinic of the University Hospital of Heraklion with neuropathic pain during the period 2019–2020. Signa Vitae. 2021. 17(S1);11-11.
[1] International Association For The Study Of Pain. IASP Pain Terminology: https://www.iasp-pain.org/resources/terminology/#pain (Accessed: 10 July 2021).
[2] Torrance N, Smith BH, Bennett MI, Lee AJ. The epidemiology of chronic pain of predominantly neuropathic origin. Results from a general population survey. The Journal of Pain. 2005; 7: 281–289.
[3] Bouhassira D, Lantéri-Minet M, Attal N, Laurent B, Touboul C. Prevalence of chronic pain with neuropathic characteristics in the general population. Pain. 2008; 136: 380–387.
Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch) Created as SCI in 1964, Science Citation Index Expanded now indexes over 9,200 of the world’s most impactful journals across 178 scientific disciplines. More than 53 million records and 1.18 billion cited references date back from 1900 to present.
Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition aims to evaluate a journal’s value from multiple perspectives including the journal impact factor, descriptive data about a journal’s open access content as well as contributing authors, and provide readers a transparent and publisher-neutral data & statistics information about the journal.
Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index The CAS Source Index (CASSI) Search Tool is an online resource that can quickly identify or confirm journal titles and abbreviations for publications indexed by CAS since 1907, including serial and non-serial scientific and technical publications.
Index Copernicus The Index Copernicus International (ICI) Journals database’s is an international indexation database of scientific journals. It covered international scientific journals which divided into general information, contents of individual issues, detailed bibliography (references) sections for every publication, as well as full texts of publications in the form of attached files (optional). For now, there are more than 58,000 scientific journals registered at ICI.
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research The Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER) is a non-profit organization established in 2002 and it works in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). The overall objectives of the Foundation are to promote and develop health education and research programs.
Scopus: CiteScore 1.3 (2023) Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 Inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-level subject fields: life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences.
Embase Embase (often styled EMBASE for Excerpta Medica dataBASE), produced by Elsevier, is a biomedical and pharmacological database of published literature designed to support information managers and pharmacovigilance in complying with the regulatory requirements of a licensed drug.
Top