[Clinical experience of pain clinic in Kaohsiung Government Employees' Clinic Center].
This research was to analyze 1814 cases visited from January 1992 to December 1993 with respect to the characteristics and therapeutic effect of pain treatment in the pain clinic of Kaohsiung Government Employees' Clinic Center. The results were as follows: 1. Age level of patients ranged from 17 to 90 years old. The biggest group was of the old age group (956 cases, 52.7%). 2. Diagnostically, joint pain was the largest complain (602 cases, 33.2%). It was followed by spondylosis/spondylolithesis (324 cases, 17.9%) and myofascial pain syndrome (228 cases, 12.6%). There were 180 cases (9.9%) with two or more combined chronic pain syndrome. 3. Relationship between age and chronic pain: Old people were mostly suffered with osteoarthritis, spondylosis/spondylolithesis and post-herpetic neuralgia. Middle age people mainly had frozen shoulder, gouty arthritis and myofascial pain syndrome. Tendinitis and tension headache often occurred in young people. 4. Pre-treatment pain intensity: Most patients has Visual Analogue Scale of 7 to 8 (1622 cases, 89.4%). 5.


METHODS
Medication was mainly given to most of the patients. Some patients received nerve block (582 cases, 32.1%) and/or rehabilitation (389 cases, 21.4%). 6. Therapeutic effect was expressed by pain relief. Most patients felt moderate (708 cases, 39.0%) and almost complete pain relief (559 cases, 30.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
Chronic pain could occurred in any age group. The kinds of chronic pain syndrome were prone to different age groups. Chronic pain patients could get good therapeutic effect if they cooperated with the doctor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Chau
S W
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Chen
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Chen
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Tseng
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CK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009111:Local Government; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009786:Occupational Health Services; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D018710:Pain Clinics; D059408:Pain Management; D013624:Taiwan