New Concepts in the Assessment and Treatment of Regional Musculoskeletal Pain and Sports Injury

Long-term outcomes in patients with obesity and renal disease after sleeve gastrectomy

Morbid obesity is a barrier to kidney transplant in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is an increasingly considered intervention, but the safety and long-term outcomes are uncertain. We reviewed prospectively collected data on patients with ESRD and chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing SG from 2011 to 2018. There were 198 patients with ESRD and 45 patients with CKD (stages 1-4) who met National Institutes of Health guidelines for bariatric surgery and underwent SG; 72% and 48% achieved a body mass index of ≤ 40 and ≤ 35 kg/m² , respectively. The mean percentages of total weight loss and excess weight loss were 18.9 ± 10.8% and 38.2 ± 20.3%, respectively. SG reduced hypertension (85.8% vs 52.1%), decreased antihypertensive medication use (1.6 vs 1.0) (P < .01 each), and reduced incidence of diabetes (59.6% vs 32.5%, P < .01). Of the 71 patients with ESRD who achieved a body mass index of ≤ 40 kg/m² , 45 were waitlisted and received a kidney transplant, whereas 10 remain on the waitlist. Mortality rate after SG was 1.8 per 100 patient-years, compared with 7.3 for non-SG. Patients with stage 3a or 3b CKD exhibited improved glomerular filtration rate (43.5 vs 58.4 mL/min, P = .01). In conclusion, SG safely improves transplant candidacy while providing significant, sustainable effects on weight loss, reducing medical comorbidities, and possibly improving renal function in stage 3 patients.

Glyceryl trinitrate patches-An alternative treatment for shoulder impingement syndrome

Transdermal glyceryl trinitrate patches have been investigated as an alternative therapeutic intervention for a range of tendinopathies, due to the ease of titration of dosage and the ease of their application. Glyceryl trinitrate has been inferred to reduce pain and inflammation secondary to their nitric oxide-producing action. Shoulder impingement syndrome is a soft tissue condition that manifests as anterior shoulder pain, weakness, and difficulty in daily activities. This review will evaluate the efficacy of glyceryl trinitrate patches in treating a variety of rotator cuff tendinopathies related to shoulder impingement, based on human and animal trials, and suggest its practical application in future trials and management.

Topical analgesics in the management of acute and chronic pain

Oral analgesics are commonly prescribed for the treatment of acute and chronic pain, but these agents often produce adverse systemic effects, which sometimes are severe. Topical analgesics offer the potential to provide the same analgesic relief provided by oral analgesics but with minimal adverse systemic effects. This article describes the results of a systematic review of the efficacy of topical analgesics in the management of acute and chronic pain conditions. A literature search of MEDLINE/PubMed was conducted using the keywords topical analgesic AND chronic pain OR acute pain OR neuropathic pain and focused only on individual clinical trials published in English-language journals. The search identified 92 articles, of which 65 were eligible for inclusion in the review. The most commonly studied topical analgesics were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (n=27), followed by lidocaine (n=9), capsaicin (n=6), amitriptyline (n=5), glyceryl trinitrate (n=3), opioids (n=2), menthol (n=2), pimecrolimus (n=2), and phenytoin (n=2). The most common indications were acute soft tissue injuries (n=18), followed by neuropathic pain (n=17), experimental pain (n=6), osteoarthritis and other chronic joint-related conditions (n=5), skin or leg ulcers (n=5), and chronic knee pain (n=2). Strong evidence was identified for the use of topical diclofenac and topical ibuprofen in the treatment of acute soft tissue injuries or chronic joint-related conditions, such as osteoarthritis. Evidence also supports the use of topical lidocaine in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia and diabetic neuropathy. Currently, limited evidence is available to support the use of other topical analgesics in acute and chronic pain.

Ultrasonography in regenerative injection (prolotherapy) using dextrose, platelet-rich plasma, and other injectants

Recent advances in ultrasound technology are leading physiatrists to new understandings of pain sources, new treatment options, and the ability to guide soft tissue interventions. This article examines the role of imaging ultrasound in diagnosing soft tissue injury and disease that may respond to regenerative medicine techniques (known as prolotherapy) using injectants such as dextrose, morrhuate sodium, or platelet-rich plasma. The current state of ultrasound evidence for these interventions is reviewed. Case examples assist in understanding clinical applications that currently outpace the evidence base. Development of quantitative ultrasound measures to objectively evaluate soft tissue organization is discussed.

[Muscle injuries: diagnostics and treatments]

Muscle injuries are common in sports. They are usually caused by either acute (mostly eccentric mechanisms) or chronic overloading with a lack of muscle coordination. They present in clinical practice as bruises and muscle sprains. Due to the rigours of a modern society and the high economic cost of time off work, an effective treatment needs to be employed. The key to an optimised therapy rests in the appropriate timing between immobilisation and mobilisation. The interval to muscle repair might be shortened by certain adjuvant therapies. In doing so, it is important that no physiological phases of wound healing are overlooked. Muscle healing can be accelerated by externally induced higher metabolic turnover. Surgical therapy is sometimes necessary in selected cases and in serious injuries.

Neuropathic pain-like alterations in muscle nociceptor function associated with vibration-induced muscle pain

We recently developed a rodent model of the painful muscle disorders induced by occupational exposure to vibration. In the present study we used this model to evaluate the function of sensory neurons innervating the vibration-exposed gastrocnemius muscle. Activity of 74 vibration-exposed and 40 control nociceptors, with mechanical receptive fields in the gastrocnemius muscle, were recorded. In vibration-exposed rats ∼15% of nociceptors demonstrated an intense and long-lasting barrage of action potentials in response to sustained suprathreshold mechanical stimulation (average of 2635 action potentials with frequency of ∼44Hz during a 1min suprathreshold stimulus) much greater than that has been reported to be produced even by potent inflammatory mediators. While these high-firing nociceptors had lower mechanical thresholds than the remaining nociceptors, exposure to vibration had no effect on conduction velocity and did not induce spontaneous activity. Hyperactivity was not observed in any of 19 neurons from vibration-exposed rats pretreated with intrathecal antisense for the IL-6 receptor subunit gp130. Since vibration can injure peripheral nerves and IL-6 has been implicated in painful peripheral neuropathies, we suggest that the dramatic change in sensory neuron function and development of muscles pain, induced by exposure to vibration, reflects a neuropathic muscle pain syndrome.