Peripheral neuropathic pain syndromes (PNPS) are difficult to treat because commonly used analgesics are often ineffective when, for example, touch-evoked allodynia, hyperalgesia, and pain paroxysms are present. To investigate whether lidocaine patch 5% treatment is also effective in postherpetic neuropathy (PHN) and in other PNPS, 40 patients with various forms and localizations of PNPS completed a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, two-way, cross-over study in three medical hospitals. Patients suffering from pain in a localized skin area with intensity above 40 mm visual analog scale (VAS) and a stable consumption of pain medication were included in this study. The study was divided into four phases: 3-day run-in phase, treatment phase 1, wash-out period, and treatment phase 2, each lasting 1 week. At the discretion of the patients, up to four patches (covering a maximum of 560 cm2) were applied onto the maximally painful area for 12 consecutive hours daily, always either by day or at night. Throughout the four phases, ongoing pain, allodynia, quality of neuropathic symptoms, quality of sleep, and adverse events were assessed. When, after the wash-out period, the pain intensity scores did not return to the pre-treatment values (+/-20%), these patients were excluded from the study. The present study revealed that, as an add-on therapy, the lidocaine patch 5% was clearly effective in reducing ongoing pain (P=0.017) and allodynia (P=0.023) during the first 8 h after application and that the patches also worked well over a period of 7 days (P=0.018) in diverse focal PNPS. Calculation of the numbers needed to treat (NNT) to obtain one patient with more than 50% relief of ongoing pain revealed that the NNT of 4.4 in the present study compared reasonably well with other studies of PHN, such as topically applied capsaicin (NNT: 5.3-infinity) or systemic treatment with gabapentin (NNT: 3.2-5.0).

Tumescent liposuction is a highly effective treatment for lipoedema with good morphological and functional long-term results.

IntroductionPostoperative delirium is an important problem in patients undergoing major surgery. Cerebral oximetry is a non-invasive method to detect imbalances in the cerebral oxygen supply/demand-ratio. Low preoperative cerebral oxygen saturation (ScO2) levels have been associated with postoperative delirium in non-cardiac surgery patients. The present prospective observational study determines the relationship between pre- and intra-operative ScO2 levels and postoperative delirium in patients undergoing on-pump cardiac surgery.MethodsAfter approval of the local ethical committee and written informed consent, N = 231 patients scheduled for elective/urgent cardiac surgery were enrolled. Delirium was assessed by the confusion-assessment-method for the intensive care unit (CAM-ICU) on the first three days after surgery. ScO2 was obtained on the day before surgery, immediately before surgery and throughout the surgical procedure. Preoperative cognitive function, demographic, surgery related, and intra- and post-operative physiological data were registered.ResultsPatients with delirium had lower pre- and intra-operative ScO2 readings, were older, had lower mini-mental-status-examination(MMSE) scores, higher additive EuroScore and lower preoperative haemoglobin-levels. The binary logistic regression identified older age, lower MMSE, neurological or psychiatric disease and lower preoperative ScO2 as independent predictors of postoperative delirium.ConclusionsThe presented study shows that a low preoperative ScO2 is associated with postoperative delirium after on-pump cardiac surgery.

Patients with impaired cognitive performance before operation may be at particular risk for intraoperative cerebral insult. A sevoflurane-based anaesthesia was associated with better short-term postoperative cognitive performance than propofol.

We present the first questionnaire in German language including 3 most common primary headaches for use in epidemiological research.