• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.127-130
• /
• 1995

A 34 year old male patient visited to our neuro-pain clinic with symtoms of a left frontal headache, eyeball throbbing and occipital pain. Two days after the first visit to our clinic. pain was aggrevated and the skin eruption appeared on the left forehead. He was diagnosed as raving Herpes Zoster Opthalmicus(HZO). We performed stellate ganglion block(SGB), but pain did not subsid. So a continuous cervical epidural block was perfomed(CCEB) and it could relieve the pain promptly. In this case, VAS(visual analogue scale) was diminished from 10 to 3 and the skin eruption was healed 24 days after the treatment with CCEB and SGB. We experienced that CCEB is more effective rather than intermittent SGB in intractable HZO. CCEB should be considered to the treatment of choice in patients with HZO.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제13권2호
• /
• pp.251-254
• /
• 2000

A 20-year-old male patient developed severe right leg pain, hyperesthesia and allodynia after multiple lumbar epidural blocks. His pain was neuropathic pain (complex regional pain syndrome type I). The patient was treated with repeated administration of epidural ketamine at the rate of 0.2~0.7 mg/kg on multiple occasions. Complete relief of pain was achieved.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제8권2호
• /
• pp.308-311
• /
• 1995

The incidence of contamination of epidural catheters used for pain control was investigated. To prevent epidural infection, all patients with epidural catheters had taken amoxacillin 1.5gm/day orally. Of the cultures of catheters catched from 303 patients undergoing continuous epidrual catheterization, 5 catheters (1.7%) were found to be contaminated; cervical 1/86 (1.2%), thoracic 1/27 (3.7%), and lumbar 3/190 (1.6%). Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most common etiologic agent (60%). To prevent epidural infection, sterilization of the skin around the epidural catheter and prophylactic use of broad-spectrum antibiotics are thought to be beneficial.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제4권2호
• /
• pp.106-110
• /
• 1991

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제19권2호
• /
• pp.213-217
• /
• 2006

Although various treatments for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) have been proposed, no well recognized treatment for CRPS has been established. Herein, a case using barbiturate coma therapy for the refractory pain management of a 24-year-old male patient, who suffered from constant stabbing and burning pain, with severe touch allodynia in the left upper extremity following blunt trauma on his forearm is described. Interventional treatments, including permanent spinal cord stimulation and large doses of oral medications, were performed. However, the pain could not be controlled, which lead to frequent emergency room treatment for about 1 month prior to his therapy. He then underwent barbiturate coma therapy due to the uncontrollable pain, with repeated sedation therapy due to his outrageous behavior. His pain became increasingly tolerable and the allodynia was markedly decreased after 5 days of coma therapy.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제9권1호
• /
• pp.83-88
• /
• 1996

This is a retrospective analysis of 158 patients who visted our Neuro-Pain clinic, April 1992 to March 1996, suffering from trigeminal neuralgia. Most patients received nerve blocks in its triggering peripheral branches of pain. All patients experienced pain relief for 3 months after initial successful nerve block. Twenty two patients complained of recurring pain within 4 to 32 months. Mean duration of pain relief was as follows: infraorbital nerve block 15.2 months, maxillary nerve block 16.8 months, and mandibular nerve block 23.4 months. Demographic and clinical characteristics of all patients were also evaluated. This study demonstrates that alcohol block is a safe and effective method of treating trigeminal neuralgia.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제7권2호
• /
• pp.231-237
• /
• 1994

Epidural steroid injection is a treatment for low back pain which allows smaller doses with less risk of side effects and longer duration of relief than systemic administration. From 1 June 1992 to 31 January, 1994, 1 mg/kg of triamcinolone diacetate in 8 ml of lidocaine 1% was administered 56 times to 33 patients who complained of low back pain. Results of epidural steroid injection provided effectiveness in treating various low back pain diseases except postlaminectomy syndrome. However there are no gains about repeated epidural steroid injection.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제8권1호
• /
• pp.152-155
• /
• 1995

Meralgia paresthetica is a disorder characterized by a pain or dysaesthesia, or both, in the anterolateral aspect of the thigh caused by entrapment or neurinoma formation of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. Currently available modes of therapy include conservative treatment, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block with steroids and local anesthetics, and surgery. At our neuro-pain clinic, w recently encountered three cases of meralgia paresthetica, all of which were treated by lateral femoral cutaneous nerve block. In which of them, two cases were successfully treated but one case was associate with pain relapse due to entrapment of lateral femoral cutaneous nerve by a retroperitoneal mass, schwannoma. In this paper we report our experience along with a review of the current literatures.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제13권1호
• /
• pp.111-114
• /
• 2000

Pain around the posterior iliac crest area is usually attributed to disorders of the lower lumbar or lumbosacral spine. However, low back pain arising from the thoracolumbar region is common and it is very similar to low back pain of lumbosacral origin. Low back pain of thoracolumbar origin is clinically distinguished from other nonspecific low back pain syndrome. It is characterized by symptoms localized at one posterior iliac crest innervated by posterior branch of $T_{12}$ spinal nerve. Patients never complain of spontaneous pain at the thoracolumbar junction. Only localized tenderness over involved segments of thoracolumbar junction can be noted. We report two cases of posterior iliac crest pain of thoracolumbar origin which was relieved by the treatment on the thoracolumbar junction.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
• /
• 제13권2호
• /
• pp.232-236
• /
• 2000

Bilateral trigeminal neuralgia is uncommon and usually occurs in 1% to 11% of patients with trigeminal neuralgia. There has been no report of a patient with bilateral trigeminal neuralgia in Korea. Based on our review, the incidence of bilateral trigeminal neuralgia among the trigeminal neuralgia patients who visited our pain clinic numbered 0.7% (4 out of 531). This is much lower than those of other previous studies. This lower incidence might be explained by the fact that we excluded those patients with mild bilateral trigeminal neuralgia which did not require treatment and also patients whose symptom on controlateral side was relieved by injection of local anesthetics for that side. Among the four patients with bilateral trigeminal neuralgia, three patients received alcohol block of the branches of trigeminal nerve and one refused the treatment. Overall, three patients maintained good or excellent pain relief without any serious complications throughout the follow-up period.