Spinal Cord Synaptic Plasticity and Chronic Pain

Neonatal outcomes when intravenous esketamine is added to the parturients transferred from labor analgesia to emergency cesarean section: a retrospective analysis report

OBJECTIVES

The use of intravenous analgesics during emergency cesarean section may lead to adverse neonatal outcomes. In our study, we investigated whether a single intravenous (i.v.) dose of 25 mg esketamine administered to parturients with inadequate analgesia during epidural anesthesia for cesarean section would affect the neonate.

DESIGN

We reviewed the records of parturients who were transferred from labor analgesia to epidural anesthesia for emergency cesarean section from January 2021 to April 2022. Parturients were grouped by whether they received esketamine infusions during the incision-delivery interval. Neonatal outcomes, including umbilical arterial-blood gas analysis (UABGA), Apgar score, and total days spent by the neonate in the hospital, were compared between the two groups. The secondary outcomes of this study included BP, heart rate (HR), SPO₂ and the incidence of adverse effects in parturients during operation.

SETTING

China.

RESULTS

After propensity score matching, 31 patients remained in each of the non-esketamine and esketamine groups. There were no significant differences in neonatal outcomes, including UABGA, Apgar score, and total days in the hospital, between the two groups. Additionally, our study showed a similar hemodynamic performance in parturients between the two groups during operation.

CONCLUSIONS

Intravenous esketamine (25 mg) is safe for neonates when it is given to parturients transferred from labor analgesia to emergency cesarean section.

Effects of Chronic Pain Treatment on Altered Functional and Metabolic Activities in the Brain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies

Previous studies have identified altered brain changes in chronic pain patients, however, it remains unclear whether these changes are reversible. We summarized the neural and molecular changes in patients with chronic pain and employed a meta-analysis approach to quantify the changes. We included 75 studies and 11 of these 75 studies were included in the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis. In the 62 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, the primary somatosensory and motor cortex (SI and MI), thalamus, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) showed significantly decreased activity after the treatments compared to baseline. In the 13 positron emission tomography (PET) studies, the SI, MI, thalamus, and insula showed significantly increased glucose uptake, blood flow, and opioid-receptor binding potentials after the treatments compared to baseline. A meta-analysis of fMRI studies in patients with chronic pain, during pain-related tasks, showed a significant deactivation likelihood cluster in the left medial posterior thalamus. Further studies are warranted to understand brain reorganization in patients with chronic pain compared to the normal state, in terms of its relationship with symptom reduction and baseline conditions.