[The effectiveness of the percutaneous discectomy in the treatment of pain secondary to disc herniation]. / Discectomía percutánea para tratamiento del dolor radicular.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous discectomy has shown to be useful for relief the radicular pain due to a disk hernia, which is a common condition in the general population. The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous discectomy in radicular pain caused by disk hernia. METHODS: A descriptive study was done. The records of percutaneous discectomy patients from a two years period were analyzed including those who had a pain intensity scored by a Analog Visual Scale (VAS), those with daily taken analgesics, before and after the procedure were registered. Dose in milligrams (mg) of analgesic intake were converted to equivalent dosages for 24 hours oral morphine. Pain intensity and medication take before and after the procedure were compared. RESULTS: VAS average previous to the procedure was 6.29 and after it descended to 2.86. The mean of medication intake before discectomy was 30.32 mg and after the procedure was 12.75 mg. DISCUSSION: We found pain improvement in a high percentage of patients reflected by a decrease in VAS and the medication needed.

[Pain characteristics in HIV/AIDS patients]. / Características del dolor en el enfermo con VIH/sida.

BACKGROUND: Human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), affects 0.6 % of world population and 0.3 % of the adult population in Mexico. Pain, in this group, is frequently not identified by the health care team, is poorly defined, and undertreated. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence of pain and its characteristics in Mexican HIV patients. METHODS: HIV diagnosed patients were included. Social and demographic information about pain characteristics, response to analgesic treatment and the presence of comorbidities were analyzed. The illness status was identified and CD4 cell count was documented. RESULTS: Pain was identified in 11 of 55 cases. Mean time of pain onset was 26 months (SD 28.6). Mean pain intensity by visual analogue scale was 7 (SD 2.3), and by verbal analogue scale proportions were reported as follows: 18 % mild, 36.5 % moderate, and 45 % severe pain. CONCLUSIONS: We observed that pain appeared in 20 % of subjects. CD4 count was observed to be related to pain decrease. Type of study and sample size does not permit a definite interpretation of the results; therefore a generation of prospective studies with larger samples is needed.