Korean Pain Descriptors in Patients with Neuromusculoskeletal Pain

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate which Korean pain descriptors are frequently used in the patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases and compare the frequency of Korean pain descriptor according to age, gender, pain pattern and intensity, and clinical diagnosis.METHOD: Two hundreds sixty nine patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases were enrolled in this study. The patients were asked to fill out a pain questionnaire using Korean. The Korean pain descriptors were collected and classified according to neurophysiological mechanism. The frequency of Korean pain descriptor was analyzed by age, gender, pain pattern and intensity, and clinical diagnosis. They were divided into axial spine and peripheral joint pain group depending on the location of causal disease and shoulder pain descriptors were divided into intra-articular and bursa group.RESULTS: Among 24 Korean pain descriptors, ‘arida’ was the most common pain descriptor, followed by ‘ssusida’ and ‘jjireunda’. When the pain descriptors were classified according to neurophysiological mechanism, superficial somatic pain was the most common, followed by deep somatic pain. There was a significant difference in the frequency of the pain descriptor between axial spine and peripheral joint pain group (p=0.007). The pain descriptor ‘danggida’ was used significantly more in the patients with axial spine pain than peripheral joint pain (p=0.024). However, there was no significant difference in other factors.CONCLUSION: The patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases expressed their pain using various Korean pain descriptors with stabbing nature and superficial somatic pain. Our results may be helpful to assess and develop a new Korean pain quality measure in the patients with neuromusculoskeletal diseases.

Recovery Course of Macular Structure after Macular Hole Surgery: Using a Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Image

PURPOSE: To analyze the recovery course of foveal microstructures and evaluate the important structures for visual improvement after vitrectomy for full thickness macular hole (MH) using optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 34 cases with idiopathic macular hole. We investigated the healing process of foveal microstructures and visual acuity pre- and post-operatively at 1, 3, 6, 12 months after surgery. We evaluated the integrity of four factors by OCT image: existence of MH (Hole, H(1,3,6,12)), recovery of outer nuclear layer (ONL, O(1,3,6,12)), recovery of external limiting membrane (ELM, E(1,3,6,12)), and recovery of inner segment-outer segment (IS/OS) line of the photoreceptor (Photoreceptor, P(1,3,6,12)). We compared the recovery course and visual acuity of the four groups based on postoperative 12 months. RESULTS: The mean observed period was 1.85 ± 2.59 months at recovery of ONL, 3.78 ± 3.83 months at recovery of ONL and ELM, and 7.40 ± 3.56 months at recovery of ONL, ELM and IS/OS line. At postoperative 12 months, the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of Groups E and P were better than that of Groups H and O (p < 0.05). Except for group H, all groups had improved BCVA at postoperative 12 months compared to preoperative BCVA (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Recovery sequences of foveal microstructures were ONL, ELM and IS/OS line after vitrectomy for idiopathic MH. The most important structures for visual acuity were restorations of both ELM and IS/OS line.

Short-Term Comparison of Surgical Results between One-Haptic and Two-Haptics Transscleral Fixation of Intraocular Lens

PURPOSE: To compare the short-term clinical outcomes of transscleral fixation intraocular lens (IOL) with two haptics or one haptic. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 26 patients with transscleral fixation of IOL (11 with one-haptic fixation, 15 with two-haptic fixation) except in patients whose visual acuity is not expected to improve due to retinal problems or ocular trauma. We analyzed the manifest refraction, visual acuity, refractive error preoperatively and postoperatively, preoperative IOL decentration, operating time, and postoperative complications. RESULTS: When comparing the two groups preoperatively, the mean lens decentration in the one-haptic group was 2.73 ± 2.88 mm and 4.59 ± 2.18 mm in the two-haptics group. The decentration in the two-haptic group was greater than in the one-haptic group, but not significantly. Visual acuity and refractive power were not significantly different between the groups. The mean operation time (minutes) was 65.00 ± 22.69 and 93.66 ± 29.54 in the one-haptic and two-haptic groups, respectively. The operation time in the one-haptic group was significantly shorter than in the two-haptic group (p = 0.020). When comparing visual acuity preoperatively and postoperatively, both groups showed significant improvement (p < 0.01). However, refractive error and postoperative IOL decentration were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The short-term surgical results of transscleral fixation using the two surgical techniques were not different; one-haptic transscleral fixation was preferred due to shorter operation time and lower patient discomfort.