The use of brain positron emission tomography to identify sites of postoperative pain processing with and without epidural analgesia.
It is not known how different analgesic regimes affect the brain when reducing postoperative pain. We performed positron emission tomography (PET) scans on a 69-yr-old woman in the presence of moderate postoperative pain and then with epidural analgesia producing complete analgesia, during the first 2 days after total knee arthroplasty. Day 2 postsurgery PET scan data (no pain with epidural analgesia) were subtracted from Day 1 postsurgery PET scan data (time of moderate pain without epidural analgesia) to determine the brain regions activated. Postsurgical pain was associated with increased activity in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Other brain regions showing increased postsurgical activity were the contralateral parietal cortex, bilateral pulvinar and ipsilateral medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus, contralateral putamen, contralateral superior temporal gyrus, ipsilateral fusiform gyrus, ipsilateral posterior lobe, and contralateral anterior cerebellar lobe. This study demonstrates the feasibility of evaluating the central processing of acute postoperative pain using PET.
Department of Anesthesiology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. Asokumar@aol.com
Asokumar
A
Buvanendran
Amjad
A
Ali
Travis R
TR
Stoub
Richard A
RA
Berger
Jeffrey S
JS
Kroin
D000368:Aged; D015360:Analgesia, Epidural / Q000379:methods*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000187:drug effects / Q000379:methods*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*