Category Archives: Back Pain

Gabapentin Fails to Help Back Pain With or Without Sciatica

Not all that long ago, Canadian Indian Affairs mandated that native pain sufferers had to try  gabapentin/cymbalta like drugs first before certain opioids. I wrote about how poorly cymbalta worked: http://painmuse.org/?p=2179 Now even gabapentin failed to help back pain with … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Drugs | Tagged | 1 Comment

Does Etanercept Nerve Irritation Limit Use?

Many years ago I was injecting enbrel paraspinously near the nerve exit of sciatica nerve location. I was using a full 25 mg and found it had minimal effects. I wrote E. Tobinick at times and wondered if it was … Continue reading

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Missed Back Pains Especially in Elderly – Kissing Spinous Processes – Baastrup’s Disease

Touching spinous processes in back can elicit pain, and may coexist with other problems so be easily missed. Cortisone injection is the first line treatment. I might have seen one lately that was puzzling that it was so localized – … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Injection | 1 Comment

Sacroiliac Joint Injection Proposal

Given that I do not have Ultrasound (got rid of old one – filled a room), I have developed a SI joint technique and would like opinion re such. Also I will refer to article using SI injections.

Posted in Back Pain, Injection | 1 Comment

Chronic Back Pain Is a Painful Vertebral Body Problem

One study demonstrates that chronic back pain is associated not so much with plain disc degeneration but with disc degeneration combined with end plate or vertebral body schmorl nodes. Another study found that people with back pain and modic type … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Injection, Insurer issues, pain mechanisms | 3 Comments

Vitamin D – Could High Doses Help Pains?

4000 u/d vitamin D  lessening  Chronic Musculoskeletal Pains

Posted in Back Pain, Deficits, Drugs, Fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, pain mechanisms | 4 Comments

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis – German View

With a recent negative American view, it is nice to have a more encouraging German perspective. Though 2/3 go to surgery, 1/3 can be managed with physiotherapy, cycling exercise, psychotherapy, and injections – epidural, paraspinal, facet and sacroiliac.

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Caudal Block- Just Going Thru Sacrococcygeal Ligament only Works 68% of Time But…

It has been suggested just going thru sacrococcygeal ligament is enough to get into epidural space. Imaging shows it works 68% of time, while advancing up 1 cm works 95.8% of time. However, intravascular injection occurred 25% of time where … Continue reading

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Methylene Blue Disc injection for Chronic Disc disease

Methylene blue injections were an exciting option after a Chinese article was published in PAIN glowingly detailed great responses to intradisc injections. Dr. N. Bogduk, at time, wrote an editorial suspicious that Chinese patients might be reluctant to admit they … Continue reading

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Spinal Stenosis – Biased Report Ignores Benefits of Epidurals

Epidural injections can reduce pain from spinal stenosis but fact is, very little of the effect is from the steroid. It can reduce pain from 6.6-6.7 to lower 4’s in 3 and 6 weeks – this is a drop of … Continue reading

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Inflammatory Back Pain (IBP) – MRI’s Use depends on when you do it.

In IBP – MRI could be negative or positive at one point and then the opposite later on. Make MRI imaging more dubious than people think.

Posted in arthritis, Back Pain | Leave a comment

Remarkable New Treatment – Injecting Over Tenderized Skin Nerves With Plain 5% Dextrose

For year I felt the main expression of chronic pain was through activation of myofascial knots – now it looks like tenderized skin nerves is a front runner. Merely injecting D5W overtop tenderized nerve tracts an average of 6 weekly … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Injection, Leg Pains, Neck | 4 Comments

Unresectable Painful Bone Cysts – IV Zoledronic acid For Adults and IV Pamidronate For Children Gives Rapid Relief

Painful large and unresectable bone cysts responded rapidly to IV biphosphonate therapy within first cycle in 88% of cases. Adults received 4 mg of Zoledronic acid (Zometa®, Novartis), and children got IV pamidronate 1mg/kg.  Zoledronic acid, if more than one … Continue reading

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Reaching “Critical Mass” to Achieving Pain Control – Procedure Pearls

I have recently achieved (previously unattainable) control in some of my chronic pain subjects using recent innovations – but to acheive this required use of multiple modalities at once.

Posted in arm, Back Pain, Botox, complex regional pain, Drugs, Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Injection, IV therapy, Leg Pains, Manual Med, myofascial pain, Neck, neuropathic, Pain Dystrophy, piriformis, post herpetic neuralgia, radiculitis, shoulder, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Is Nortriptyline Any Good? – Maybe – but Maybe Only a Bit

Recently, nortriptyline has been touted as good anti-neuropathic drug but thoughts of its use have extended into use for chronic pain in general.  Well, it doesn’t work for back pain, sciatica or migraines so that might need reanalysis.

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Effect Of Cushioning Insoles on Workplace Back, Foot and Knee Pains

Use of sorbothane insoles cut  back pains by 38%, foot pains by 37% and knee pains by 38%. Relief in back pain did not mean relief in another areas. Wonder if antifatigue covers would help more.

Posted in Back Pain, Knee, Leg Pains, Mechanical aids | Leave a comment

Obscure Groin Pain Could Be Lumbar Disc Even if Back Not Painful

Five  cases of groin pain that refused deliniation  and had NO back pains. They all turned out to be L4/5 or L5/S1 disc pain found on discogram/discoblock.  They all got relief with anterior intrabody fusion.

Posted in Back Pain, central & spinal, neuropathic | Leave a comment

Chronic Back Pain May Be a Pamidronate Infusion Treatable Disease – And Why Did It take 10 Years to Replicate That?

For Chronic back pain – Pamidronate 90 mg diluted in 250 mls saline and given over 4 hours – initially and in 4 weeks resulted in 85% getting 100% relief at 6 months versus very little response in the placebo … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Drugs, IV therapy, pain mechanisms, Sask Pain Advice | 1 Comment

Back Pain Worsening? – Look For Back Pain Multipliers – They Are Treatable.

I had a recent personal experience of back pain that showed me conditions that would multiply pain several times or more.  I have patients on opioids that have complained their meds no longer “cuts it” – and I have been able … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Botox, neuropathic | 3 Comments

Unilateral Interscapular Pains – Dorsal Scapular Nerve Entrapment – Forgotten and Now Rediscovered

    About 30 years ago, I attended a course given by Drs. Travell and Simon.  Dr. Simon was discussing interscapular pains and Dr. Travell mentioned – don’t forget the scalenes – something that Dr. Simon replied he was getting … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, myofascial pain, Neck, Thoracic, thoracic outlet syn | 7 Comments

Vertebral Compression Fracture Pain And Nothing Helped – Other Option

Effectiveness of Kyphoplasty has been disputed, and other are left without it; this leave a proportion wondering what to do.  Medial branch rhizotomy (like a facet rhizotomy) has been found helpful.

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Steroid Epidurals Results Might Be Minimized By Fact Steroid Mineralcorticoid Effects are Pro-Inflammatory and Nociceptive

Steroids effect two processes/receptors – a glucocorticoid pathway, and a mineralcorticoid one. The glucocorticoid pathway has strong anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects. The mineralcorticoid pathway works more on retaining salt. The latter has been found to have pro-inflammatory effects which might have … Continue reading

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Midazolam Effective For Back Pain – Safe as Kenalog Because Same Benzyl Alcohol Perservative – As Long as Ph Balanced and Benzyl Alcohol Diluted to 0.07%

Midazolam has been shown to have powerful effects similar to steroid epidurally, but there are concerns about its perservative. However, it is the same Benzyl alcohol preservative seen in Kenalog which is widely used in epidural injections. Recent animal vitreous … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Drugs, radiculitis | 1 Comment

Chronic Neck and Back Pain Might Be a Treatable Infection

Since 2001, there have been case studies showing you can grow low grade anaerobes out of damaged discs; these ignored as contamination or incidental because some studies did not find any infection. Now it appears that those with positive cultures are 5.6 times … Continue reading

Posted in Back Pain, Neck | 2 Comments

Back Pain – Is Duloxetine (Cymbalta) Really a Contender?-And What About Knee?

In a Quebec analysis (if one looks is actually the drug company’s), it has been suggested that Duloxetine might be more cost effective for patients over 65 where the heart disease and stomach bleed risks of NSAID arthrtis pill might … Continue reading

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