Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. A clear role of ICA69 in mediating the antihyperalgesic effects of electroacupuncture was confirmed, and the ICA69-PICK1-GluR2 molecular mechanism to explain these effects is proposed.

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Background/aim: This study aimed to study the effect of pretreatment transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) in preventing propofol injection-related pain.Materials and methods: A total of 360 patients who were to undergo elective hysteroscopy surgery were randomly divided into the following three groups of 120 patients each: control (Group C), sham TEAS (Group F), and TEAS (Group T). Patients in Group C did not undergo any treatment before surgery; 30 min before the induction of anesthesia, patients in Groups F and T underwent electrical stimulation of the bilateral LI4-PC6 acupoint. Patients in Group F were subjected to "feeling flow", while those in Group T were subjected to "tolerance flow. " The stimulation frequency was 2/100 Hz and the duration of stimulation was 30 min. After the induction of anesthesia, propofol injection-related pain scores, hemodynamic parameters, and adverse reactions were recorded.Results: Of the 360 patients, 324 completed the study. There were significant differences among the groups in terms of the incidence of moderate-to-severe pain. In terms of the four-point scaling method, the end of the radial vein, the cubital vein, and the "back of the hand" vein differed significantly among the three groups (P = 0.05). Finally, using a numerical rating scale, a significant difference was observed among the three groups in terms of the pain scores in the different veins.Conclusions: Pretreatment TEAS effectively reduces the incidence and severity of propofol injection-related pain, the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and patient postoperative pain scores.

The aim of the study was to study the role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)-dorsal midbrain striatum (DMS) in neuropathic pain in mice. Material and methods: Optogenetics has been increasingly used in neuroscience research to selectively and precisely control the activity of a defined group of central neurons to determine their roles in behavioral functions in animals. The most important opsins are blue-sensitive ChR2 and yellow-sensitive NpHR. Calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase Iiα (CaMKIIα) is mostly expressed in the pyramidal excitatory neurons. Mice were injected with AAV2/9-CamKII-ChR2-mCherry, AAV2/9-CamKII-eNpHR3.0-GFP or AAV2/9-CamKII-mCherry virus in the ACC region, and the optical fiber implantation was performed in the ACC or DMS region. Mice were then followed up for 2 to 8 weeks and behavioral tests were carried out in the presence or absence of the blue/yellow light (473 nm/589 nm). Pain behavioral tests with or without the blue/yellow light at the same time were performed on the third and the seventh day after the chronic constriction injury of sciatic nerve model (CCI) was established. The pain thresholds of left and right hind limbs of mice in all groups were measured. Results: No matter whether activating the neurons in ACC or DMS, compared with normal mice in the ChR2-off-right group, and the mCherry-onright group, the thermal pain threshold and mechanical pain threshold of the normal mice in the ChR2-on-right group were significantly lower. When inhibiting the neurons in the ACC or DMS, on day 3 and day 7 after CCI operation, the thermal pain threshold and mechanical pain threshold of the CCI mice of the NpHR-on-right group were significantly higher compared with the NpHR-off-right and mCherry-on-right groups. Conclusions: The anterior cingulate cortex-dorsal midbrain striatum may be involved in the regulation of neuropathic pain in mice.