Electrodiagnosis is a broad term that includes multiple electrodiagnostic techniques, including needle electrode examination (NEE); motor and sensory nerve conduction studies (NCSs), including late responses; and evoked potentials (EPs). Electrodiagnostic…
Introduction Untreated postoperative pain can result in unwanted psychological and physiologic effects that may increase morbidity and mortality, compromise quality of recovery, and increase the incidence of chronic pain. Although…
Chronic pain presents two broad challenges to proper assessment: the inherently subjective nature of pain complaints and the wide-ranging influence of chronic pain on patients’ functioning. These challenges necessitate a…
When a patient seeks treatment from a health care provider because of a symptom such as pain, the initial focus is on the patient’s medical history and the underlying pathology—a…
Imaging is a significant, but not independent, component of the multifaceted evaluation of the patient with spine or limb pain. Imaging must be interpreted in concert with the history, physical…
Physical examination serves to further explore and confirm the findings from the clinical history. Objective data obtained from the examination are essential to accurately diagnose the etiology of the pain….
CASE 11.1 A 58-year-old Asian male with no significant past medical history presents with acute herpes zoster in the left T4 dermatome. Presenting signs and symptoms include severe localized pain…
Change, alternatively referred to as reorganization or plasticity, is a fundamental property of the brain that enables it to adapt and thus enhance survival of the organism. It has been…
In the early 1900s, Sir Charles Sherrington designated high-intensity stimuli that signaled a potential injury to the body as being nociceptive in character. The application of such stimuli to the…
Introduction The neural circuits that are responsible for pain and the reactions to pain can be termed the pain system or, perhaps more appropriately, the pain systems . The pain…
