Pain management in a patient with intractable spinal cord injury pain: a case report and literature review.
Chronic pain is one of the more disturbing sequelae of spinal cord injury, often interfering with the basic activities, effective rehabilitation, and quality of life of the patient. Pain in the cord-injured patient is often recalcitrant to treatment. This dilemma is amplified by the limited availability of effective pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment options. We identified relevant articles regarding pain after spinal cord injury from the Medline database from 1975 to 2005 using the search terms "spinal cord injury" or "spinal cord injuries" and "pain" or "spasticity or "muscle spasms." We also searched by hand the review articles in a recently published book from the International Association for the Study of Pain Press on spinal cord injury pain, and identified relevant articles through reference lists. We present a patient with intractable spinal cord injury pain who was successfully treated with a pain management plan that addressed the various aspects of spinal cord injury pain. The evidence for treatment options is reviewed.
Que
Jocelyn C
JC
Pain Management Unit, University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Santo Tomas Hospital, Manila, Philippines.
Siddall
Philip J
PJ
Cousins
Michael J
MJ
D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D013123:Spinal Fusion / Q000379:methods