Using multimodal analgesia, comprising zopiclone, gabapentin and or celecoxib, did not improve results over the standard opioid-based approach in patients after undergoing hip arthroscopy, according to an Aug. 18 report from Anesthesiology News.
Category: Pain Management
The preference for insurance coverage of opioids over non-pharmaceutical options explained
Pain is the primary reason people seek medical care. Pain is also the problem that ignited the opioid crisis and continues to supply fuel. Eighty percent of opioid misuse begins with a pill prescribed for pain. Purdue invested heavily in marketing Oxyc…
Anesthesiologists say virtual reality helps with pain
Virtual reality may decrease rates of pain, distress and anxiety in patients hospitalized with acute pain, according to an Aug. 10 report from Anesthesiology News.
Reshaping opioid policies: a patient advocate’s call [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join patient advocate Richard A. Lawhern as he challenges prevailing myths surrounding the opioid crisis. With insights from medical literature, he questions the link between opioid prescri…
The persecution of pain management doctors
The call came in during a busy workday. My comprehensive primary care clinic had been built over a decade of hard work and had a general practice clinic staffed by a very capable former surgeon and several nurse practitioners, as well as a pain managem…
Pain management PA charged in alleged fraud scheme
Fort Worth, Texas-based physician assistant Ray Shoulders has been charged with healthcare fraud after allegedly injecting amniotic fluid into patients’ joints in an attempt at pain management.
ASA publishes new guidelines for patients with substance use disorder
The American Society of Anesthesiologists developed new guidelines for health professionals to follow when choosing post-surgery pain management for individuals with a history of addiction, according to a July 18 report from legalreader.com.
How legal liabilities and skewed decision-making plague clinical encounters
The opioid crisis continues to ravage communities, and everyone, including politicians and federal agents, has a plan. However, no one has an actual solution. It’s time to examine the crisis from a more detailed perspective: the clinical percepti…
Ending the opioid crisis starts with physicians
A recently published opinion article by opioid advocates attempts to assuage physicians’ prescribing guilt, arguing “doctors prescribing to their patients did not create the U.S. opioid crisis.” As lawsuit after lawsuit concludes, Pur…
Everything the government thinks it knows about the opioid crisis is wrong
“In July 2015, journalist Johann Hari gave a TED Talk that over 20 million people have since viewed. Hari offered convincing evidence that vulnerability to opioid addiction is a consequence of the conditions under which people live — the social d…
