ABSTRACT
Patients with cancer often experience pain that significantly interferes with their daily life. In this review paper the authors discuss the different aspects of cancer pain by answering different questions regarding cancer pain. Items that are discussed include measurement of pain, medical and interventional pain treatment, side effects, opioid tolerance and addiction and barriers that preclude proper treatment of pain. The conclusion of this review paper is that the treatment of cancer pain is complex and warrants a multidisciplinary team effort with a central role for the patient.
Subject(s)
Cancer Pain , Chronic Pain , Neoplasms , Humans , Cancer Pain/drug therapy , Cancer Pain/etiology , Analgesics, Opioid/adverse effects , Drug Tolerance , Pain/drug therapy , Pain/etiology , Pain Management , Neoplasms/drug therapy , Chronic Pain/drug therapyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Although deep neuromuscular block (post-tetanic-count 1-2 twitches) improves surgical conditions during laparoscopic retroperitoneal surgery compared with standard block (train-of-four 1-2 twitches), the quality of surgical conditions varies widely, often related to diaphragmatic contractions. Hypocapnia may improve surgical conditions. Therefore we studied the effect of changes in arterial carbon dioxide concentrations on surgical conditions in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery under general anaesthesia and deep neuromuscular block. METHODS: Forty patients undergoing elective laparoscopic surgery for prostatectomy or nephrectomy received propofol/remifentanil anaesthesia and deep neuromuscular block with rocuronium. Patients were randomized to surgery under hypocapnic or hypercapnic conditions. During surgery, the surgical conditions were evaluated using the 5-point Leiden-Surgical Rating Scale (L-SRS) ranging from 1 (extremely poor conditions) to 5 (optimal conditions) by the surgeon, who was blinded to group. RESULTS: Mean (sd) arterial carbon dioxide concentrations were 4.5 (0.6) [range: 3.8-5.6] kPa under hypocapnic and 6.9 (0.6) [6.1-8.1] kPa under hypercapnic conditions. The L-SRS did not differ between groups: 4.84 (0.4) [4-5] in hypocapnia and 4.77 (0.4) [3.9-5] in hypercapnia. Ninety-nine percent of ratings were good or excellent irrespective of treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Deep neuromuscular block provides good to optimal surgical conditions in laparoscopic retroperitoneal urological surgery, independent of the level of arterial [Formula: see text]. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01968447.
