This study sought to clarify the perceptions and meanings of chronic knee joint pain, as well as the factors that affect them, among elderly people living in rural areas in order to obtain suggestions for improved nursing care. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 elderly people living in rural areas with a history of chronic knee joint pain for at least 1 year. The interview data were then qualitatively and inductively analyzed. Participants were recruited from the Federation of Senior Citizens' Clubs and outpatient internal medicine clinics. The perceptions of knee joint pain of elderly people living in rural areas were found to have features of perceptions measured according to the need for medical care, perceptions in relation to daily life, and perceptions of oneself as a person with knee joint pain. To these elderly people, knee joint pain meant “something that raises awareness of one's remaining time in life,” “something that can't be helped in life”, and “proof that one has worked hard in life.” Perceptions and meanings of knee joint pain were influenced by “not being impeded in behavior related to excretion” and other areas of life. It is important that nursing professionals support elder ly people so that they are capable of proper self-care and ensure that elderly people are “not impeded in behavior related to excretion.” In addition to providing support for symptoms of knee joint pain and behavior, nurses need to proactively ask elderly people to talk about their experiences of having knee joint pain, and determine and provide the nursing care considered necessary at that stage while considering individual elderly persons' perceptions and meanings of knee joint pain.

Cat cry syndrome (cri-du-chat syndrome) is an extremely rare condition characterized by a high shrill cry during infancy, resulting from either the deletion of the short arm of chromosome 5 or unbalanced translocation inherited from a parent. We report the case of a 1-year-old girl with cat cry syndrome associated with cleft lip. The patient showed a ventricular septal defect, cleft lip, growth and mental retardation, micrognathia, ptosis of the eyelids, hypertelorism, epicanthal folds, and a preauricular tag on the right side. A chromosomal study revealed the terminal deletion of chromosome 5 (46, XX, del(p14.2)ish del(5)). Repair of the cleft lip was carried out concurrently with resection of the preauricular tag, and the patient's postoperative course was uneventful.

This study was intended to determine whether mouth-opening exercise reduces pain sensitivity in remote regions as well as in the trigeminal region. Seven female subjects with disk displacement with reduction were asked to perform a three-minute repetitive mouth opening and closing exercise (exercise A) and a three-minute continuous mouth opening exercise (exercise B) on two separate days. Sensory/nociceptive perception thresholds were measured at the point over the right masseter and the skin overlying the volar aspect of the right forearm immediately after exercises A and B, and were compared to data in which no exercise was performed (baseline). Significant elevation in the heat-induced pain threshold was seen as a result of both exercises in the cervical region and in the trigeminal region. Also, a significant elevation in the cold-induced pain threshold was seen after exercise B in the cervical region. Further, there was a tendency toward a higher warm sensation threshold after exercise A in the cervical region. These results indicate that mouth opening training produces non-segmental analgesic effects mediated by C fiber and A-delta fiber.