• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.11-17
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• 2009

Objectives : The objectives of this study were to examine the specificity and the sensitivity of tenderness testing on the ear about the postpartum breast pain, and to improve the efficacy of the tenderness test. Methods : Thirty women who visited in the hospital for recuperating 2-14 days after childbirth participated in this study. They answered the questionnaire of the severity of breast pain and their auricular acupuncture points were tested by a long metal probe with round tip 1.1mm in diameter. We analyzed the relationship between auricular tenderness testing on mammary gland zone[CW6] and postpartum breast pain with validity and significance as grouping 8 diagnosis methods. Results : When we consider above 'moderate pain' or 'severe pain' in the auricular tenderness testing as a positive sign, and above 'evere pain' or 'very severe pain' in the self-reported breast pain score as a positive symptom, the diagnostic efficacy was highest. The sensitivity for tenderness testing was 0.62-0.75, and the specificity was 0.64-0.72, and the sensitivity and the specificity in the contralateral ear were a little higher than in the ipsilateral ear. Conclusions : These results suggest that auricular tenderness testing can be objectified clinically and be used in diagnosis.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.74-80
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• 2011

Background: Lidocaine patch (L5P) has demonstrated short-term efficacy in treating both acute surgical pain and chronic neuropathic pain with tolerable side effects. Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) is the mainstay of minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS). Sufficient analgesia during PELD surgery makes the patient consider it real MISS. This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and adverse effects of lidocaine patch in patients who underwent PELD under local anesthesia. Methods: L5P (L group) or placebo (P group) was randomly applied on the skin of the back covering the anticipated path of the working channel before 1 hour of surgery in 100 patients who underwent a single level PELD at L4-L5. Efficacy of the lidocaine patch was assessed by patient's numeric rating scale (NRS) of pain at each stage during the surgery and by a 5-scale grading of the satisfaction with the anesthesia of the operator and patients after surgery. Results: Mean NRS scores at the stages of needle insertion, skin incision, serial dilation and insertion of working channel, and subcutaneous suture were significantly lower in the L group than the P group. Postoperative operator's and patients' satisfaction scores were also significantly higher in L group than in the P group. There were subtle adverse effects in both groups. Conclusions: L5P provided better pain relief during PELD, especially at the stage of needle insertion, skin incision, serial dilation and insertion of working channel, and subcutaneous suture. It also provided higher patient and operator postoperative satisfaction, with only subtle adverse effects.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.238-248
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exercise on pain, exercise self-efficacy, activities of daily living for postoperative lumbar spinal surgery. Method: The study used a nonequivalent control group pre- and post-test design in quasi-experimental research. The data were collected from April, 2010 to July, 2011. The subjects were 40 lumbar spine surgery patients who had been hospitalized in neurosurgery of G university hospital, 20 assigned for the experimental and 20 for the control group. Exercise of this study reformed to be adapted to lumbar spine surgery patients on the basis of William's flexion exercise and exercise for HIVD surgery patients developed by Kim(1995) and was practiced three times a day for 3 weeks. The data were analysed with ${\chi}^2$-test, t- test, Repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS program. Result: There was a significant decrease in pain in the experimental group, but there was no significant increase in exercise self-efficacy and activities of daily living between the groups. Conclusion: Muscle strengthening exercise after surgery was effective in improvement of pain. Postoperative muscle strengthening exercise in lumbar spinal patients may be a useful intervention to reduce pain.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.280-285
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• 2019

Background: Pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) is a treatment modality that alleviates radicular pain by intermittently applying high-frequency currents adjacent to the dorsal root ganglion. There has been no comparative study on analgesic effect according to the position of the needle tip in PRF treatment. The objective of this study is to evaluate the clinical outcomes of PRF according to the needle tip position. Methods: Patients were classified into 2 groups (group IP [group inside of pedicle] and group OP [group outside of pedicle]) based on needle tip position in the anteroposterior view of fluoroscopy. In the anteroposterior view, the needle tip was advanced medially further than the lateral aspect of the corresponding pedicle in group IP; however, in group OP, the needle tip was not advanced. The treatment outcomes and pain scores were evaluated at 4, 8, and 12 weeks after applying PRF. Results: At 4, 8, and 12 weeks, there were no significant differences between the successful response rate and numerical rating scale score ratio. Conclusions: The analgesic efficacy of PRF treatment did not differ with the needle tip position.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the effects of self-help program offered to patients with arthritis. Method: A quasi-experimental study design with nonequivalent groups was employed for the study. The subjects in the experimental group were 19 residents of K City who visited K Health Center with chief complaints of osteoarthritis and who agreed to participate in the self-help program from January through April 2003. The subjects in the control group were 18 patients with arthritis, selected among patients on the waiting list of self-help program using random sampling method. Data related to pain, ADL, exercise self-efficacy, and knowledge about arthritis were obtained from both groups. SPSS Win 11.5 was used for the data analysis. Results: The results of this study were as follows. 1. The pain score and exercise self-efficacy of the study group were significantly higher than the control group. 2. The ADL score and knowledge about arthritis were not significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion: Based on the study results, self-help program was proved to be effective in alleviating pain, and promoting exercise self-efficacy related to arthritis.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.443-454
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of periodic reminding interventions on medication adherence, self-efficacy, and pain intensity for home-based lung cancer patients. Methods: A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group, pretest and posttest design was used. The intervention comprised of individual education by tailored image-combined medication instructions, daily reminding text message, and weekly telephone calls for four weeks. The subjects in this study consisted of 62 lung cancer patients (31 in the experimental group, and 31 in the control group). Mann-Whitney U-test was applied to analyze the data. Results: Experimental group who received periodic reminding intervention program better adhered to prescribed medication compared to the control group (z=-6.14, p<.001). Experimental group demonstrated higher level of self-efficacy compared to the control group (z=-6.74, p<.001). Experimental group experienced less intense average pain compared to the control group (z=-6.29, p<.001). Conclusion: The findings suggest that periodic reminding interventions can be applied as an effective nursing intervention to promote medication adherence and self-efficacy to improve and pain management for home-based lung cancer patients.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2015

Objective : There are many documents that explain efficacy of herbal medicine products (HMP), however, explanations on efficacy are not consistent with the clinical use. The objective of this study is to identify the differences between herbal medicines used in clinics and Korean Medicine literatures. The disease was restricted in low back pain (LBP). Method : In order to investigate HMP for the treatment of LBP, we selected five Korean medical documents as reference and searched for key words related to LBP. Five databases were Information on Herbal prescription published by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, 56 Herbal Medicines covered with Health Insurance, Guideline for prescribing herbal medicines announced by Ministry Health & Welfare, Explanation on Herbal Medicines published by Korean Pharmaceutical Association, website of Korea Pharmaceutical Information Center (http://www.health.kr/). The keywords were 'low back pain', 'lumbar', 'pain', 'myalgia', 'neuralgia', 'arthralgia', 'arthroneuralgia', and 'sciatica'. We also utilized the result of retrospective cross-sectional study in five university hospitals to investigate HMP used in practice for LBP. Results : From five databases, the number of searched HMP was 25, 12, 40, 12 and 38 respectively and 83 remained after removing duplications. There were 43 kinds of HMP used in clinical practice and only 20 (46.51 %) were included in one or more databases. Conclusion : This study suggests the necessity for reorganizing efficacy of herbal medicine. Standardizing explanation on herbal medicine should reflect the clinical conditions in further study.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.72-82
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to identify functional impairment and psychological status and to analyze their relationships in patients with chronic arthritis. The sample was consisted of 75 arthritic patients who visited H hospital and S welfare center. Functional impairment was measured by ADL, pain, and the number of painful joint. Psychological status was measured by depression, self-efficacy, and quality of life. Data was analyzed by frequency, mean ${\pm} SD$, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Stepwise multiple regression. The results of this study were as follows : 1. In functional Impairment, ADL was below average which means somewhat difficult, pain was above average, and the number of painful joint was 9.20. 2. In psychological status, scores of quality of life was 97.89, depression was 41.28, self-efficacy was 895.35. 3. Pain was negatively correlated to self-efficacy, ADL and quality of life, and positively correlated to depression. 4. Self efficacy and depression explained 45% of the variance in quality of life. Therefore, it is suggested that nursing intervention improving psychological status would be useful for patients with chronic arthritis. Especially, it is very important to implement nursing intervention focused on increasing self-efficacy and decreasing depression.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2020

Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a challenging condition for pain management specialists. The prevention of herpes zoster (HZ) and subsequent PHN in individuals aged 50 years and older, via the development of new vaccines, is an ongoing research project. The live zoster vaccine (LZV, Zostavax^®) was the first proof of concept that vaccination could prevent HZ, but LZV cannot be used in various immunecompromised patients. This led to the development of a new non-live recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV, Shingrix^®). This RZV has shown promising results in many clinical trials, with high reactogenicity and similar systemic adverse effects compared to those of LZV. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has recommended LZV as a standard vaccine for HZ prevention in adults ≥ 50 years of age, but no studies directly comparing the safety and efficacy of RZV and LZV vaccines have been conducted. This article reviews the brief history, efficacy, and safety of the two vaccines and discusses the advantage of RZV over LZV based on the available literature.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.202-208
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• 2024

Objective : Failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS) is a common long-term complication following spine surgeries characterized by chronic persistent pain; different strategies of management were employed to deal with it. This clinical trial aims to compare the efficacy of Pregabalin and Gabapentin in the management of this condition. Methods : A double-blind, randomized, comparative study (clinical trial registry NCT05324761 on 11th April 2022) with two parallel arms with Pregabalin and Gabapentin were used in arms one and two, respectively. Visual analog scale was used for basal and endpoint assessment of pain. T-test and analysis of covariance were used to deal with different variables. A pairwise test was used to compare pairs of means. Results : Of 66 patients referred to the trial, 64 were eligible, with 60 patients completing the 30 days trial. Both pregabalin and gabapentin effectively reduce pain, with significant p-values of 0.001 for each group. However, the pregabalin group was superior to gabapentin in pain reduction (p=0.001). Gender was an insignificant factor (p=0.574 and p=0.445 for the pregabalin and gabapentin groups, respectively, with a non-significant reduction (p=0.393) for both groups in total. Location of stenosis before surgery and type of surgery performed show non-significant effect on pain reduction for both groups. Conclusion : Both pregabalin and gabapentin effectively and safely relieve neuropathic pain associated with FBSS; pregabalin was significantly more effective irrespective of the patients' gender.