BACKGROUND: The common causes of lower back pain with or without leg pain includes disk disease and spinal stenosis. A definitive diagnosis is usually made by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but treatment is often difficult because the MRI findings are not consistent with the symptoms of the patient in many cases. The objective of this study was to observe the correlation between the patterns of epidurography performed in patients having lower back pain with or without leg pain and the position or severity of the pain as subjectively described by the patients. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 69 outpatients with lower back pain with or without leg pain who visited our clinic and complained of predominant pain on one side. We performed caudal epidural block using an image intensifier. A mixture of the therapeutic drug and the contrast agent (10 ml) was injected to observe the contrast flow pattern. The patients who complained of predominant pain on one side were divided into the left side group and the right side group. A judgment of inconsistency was made if the contrast agent flowed to the side of the pain, while a judgment of consistency was made if the contrast agent flowed to the opposite side of the pain. The degree of the drug distribution was evaluated by counting the number of cells to which the contrast agent's flowed for evaluating the correlation between the contrasted cell and the severity of pain (one group < or = VAS 7, the other group > or = VAS 8) the degree of the contrast agent's contrast was evaluated by dividing and counting an image into 15 cells (the left, right, and middle sections at each level of L4, L5, S1, S2, and S3). RESULTS: Thirty out of the 69 patients who had laterality in pain, that is, those who complained of predominant pain on one side, showed that the laterality of the pain and the contrast agent flow was consistent, while 39 patients showed that the laterality was inconsistent (P: 0.137). The evaluation of the correlation between the pain and the contrast agent flow showed that the mean number of contrasted cells was 9.0 +/- 2.2 for the 46 patients in the group with a VAS of 7 or lower and 6.5 +/- 2.0 for the 23 patients in the group with a VAS of 8 or higher, indicating that the former group showed a significantly greater number of contrasted cells (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study, conducted with patients having lower back pain with or without leg pain, showed that the contrast flow pattern of caudal epidurography had a significant correlation with the severity of the pain but not with the laterality of the pain.
Humans ; Judgment ; Leg ; Low Back Pain ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Outpatients ; Spinal Stenosis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare the cardiovascular changes followed by laryngoscopy with the McCoy laryngoscope blade with those followed by laryngoscopy with the Macintosh laryngoscope blade. METHODS: Forty eight patients were randomly divided into two groups. Following induction with fentanyl 2 mcg/kg and thiopental 5 mg/kg, and muscle relaxation with vecuronium 0.1 mg/kg, the vocal cords were visualized with either the McCoy or the Macintosh laryngoscope blade, then tracheal intubation was performed. Heart rate and arterial blood pressure were measured just before and after laryngoscopy, and 1, 3 and 5 min later. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in both heart rate and arterial blood pressure after tracheal intubation using the Macintosh laryngoscope. Also, use of the McCoy blade resulted in a significant increase in both heart rate and arterial blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant difference on arterial pressure and heart rate to laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation with either the McCoy blade or the Macintosh.
Arterial Pressure ; Blood Pressure* ; Fentanyl ; Heart Rate* ; Heart* ; Humans ; Intubation* ; Laryngoscopes* ; Laryngoscopy ; Muscle Relaxation ; Thiopental ; Vecuronium Bromide ; Vocal Cords

BACKGROUND: Laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation for general anesthesia are potent stimuli to the cardiovascular system due to sympathetic stimulation. The aim of this study was to compare the hemodynamic responses with different administration routes of lidocaine on blood pressure and heart rate changes associated with tracheal intubation. METHODS: Sixty patients were randomly assigned to spray group (Group 1, n=20) received 10% lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg spray to intratracheally immediately before tracheal intubation, IV group (Group 2, n=20) received 2% lidocaine 1.5 mg/kg intravenously before 90 sec tracheal intubation and control group (Group 3, n=20). Anesthesia was induced with thiopental 5 mg/kg IV, vecuronium 0.1 mg/kg and 50% N2O-O2- 2vol % enflurane. After 5 minutes, tracheal intubation was performed. Mean arterial pressure and heart rate were measured at preintubation and immediately postintubation, 1, 3, 5 mins after tracheal intubation. RESULTS:The differences of mean arterial pressure which were measured at preintubation and immediately postintubation and 1 minute after intubation in group 1 were significantly lower than those in other group (p<0.05). The differences of heart rate which measured at preintubation and 1 minute after intubation were lower than those in group 3 (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For the suppression of sympathetic stimulation following tracheal intubation, 10% lidocaine spray to the laryngotrachea is an effective method to suppress cardiovascular response.
Anesthesia ; Anesthesia, General ; Arterial Pressure ; Blood Pressure ; Cardiovascular System ; Enflurane ; Heart Rate* ; Heart* ; Hemodynamics ; Humans ; Intubation* ; Laryngoscopy ; Lidocaine* ; Thiopental ; Vecuronium Bromide

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Neurotrophic factors has been a subject of interest in the research of Parkinson's disease. In this experiment, intrastriatal 6-Hydroxydopamine(6-OHDA) injection was used to observe the effect of dopaminergic deafferentiation on the neurotrophic factor mRNA expression in the rat brain. METHODS: Male Sprague Dawley rats (250~300 gm) were treated to produce specific unilateral dopaminergic deafferentiation via injection of 6-OHDA at the right striatum without effect on the noradrenergic system. Treatment group (N=20) received same volume of vitamin C at the same site. The rats were sacrificed 3 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, after injection. The expression of nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and enkephalin (ENK) mRNA were observed by in situ hybridization histochemistry in the hippocampus, striatum and substantia nigra. RESULTS: The expression of BDNF mRNA was increased in the cerebral cortex, dentate gyrus, and hippocampus. In the cerebral cortex, the increase of expression was peaked at 12 hours after 6-OHDA injection and confined to injection side. In the dentate gyrus, the expression was significantly increased in the injection side at 12 hours after injection, after that increased expression was observed in both side. The expression of NGF mRNA was increased in the dentate gyrus and cerebral cortex of lesion side at 3 hours and 12 hours after 6-OHDA injection. However, the expression of NT-3 mRNA was not changed. The expression of TH mRNA was gradually decreased in the substantia nigra compacta of injection side from 1 week to 4 weeks after 6-OHDA injection. The expression of enkephalin mRNA was increased from 24 hours, peaked at 1week, and returned to basal level at 4 weeks after injection in the injection side. CONCLUSION: From this results, it may suggest that the expression of neurotrophic factors in the cerebral cortex, dentate gyrus and hippocampus are closely related with the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, not with the degeneration of noradrenergic neurons.
Adrenergic Neurons ; Animals ; Ascorbic Acid ; Brain* ; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor ; Cerebral Cortex ; Dentate Gyrus ; Dopaminergic Neurons ; Enkephalins ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; Male ; Nerve Growth Factor ; Nerve Growth Factors* ; Oxidopamine* ; Parkinson Disease ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; RNA, Messenger ; Substantia Nigra ; Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase

No abstract available.
Leg* ; Low Back Pain*

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of hypothermia on the recovery time after either vecuronium or atracurium given by repeated bolus injection, and to determine the adequate time of administration of neuromuscular blockers during cardiopulmonary bypass. Two groups of 10 patients each were studied before(Tl), during(T2) and after(T3) hypothermia. Following an initial intravenous bolus dose of 2X ED95 of either vecuronium(Group I) or atracurium(Group II), repeated bolus dose of ED95 was injected whenever twitch tension had returned to 20% block of train-of-four response before bypass of control As a result, the action duration of vecuronium(from injection of loading dose to twitch tension=20%) was 29.5+/-5.5 mins, 103.1+/-12.0 mins and 70.8+/-9.9 mins before, during and after hypothermia, respectively. The eorresponding values for atracurium were 26.3+/-5.1 mins, 85.7+/-11.4 mins and 42.5+/-5.1 mins. We conclude that hypothermia increases significantly the duration of action of both muscle relaxants(P<0.001) and vecuronium is influenced by hypothermia more than atracurium. The rate of recovery of twitch height after hypothermia is more rapid in atracurium than vecuronium(P<0.001). Single bolus injection of ED95 of vecuronium administered just before cardiopulmonary bypass is suitable for maintaining the neuromuscular block throughout cardiopulmonary bypass.
Atracurium* ; Cardiopulmonary Bypass* ; Humans ; Hypothermia* ; Neuromuscular Blockade ; Neuromuscular Blocking Agents ; Thoracic Surgery* ; Vecuronium Bromide*

No abstract available.
Injections, Epidural* ; Ultrasonography*

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: Stellate ganglion block, which is one of the effective therapeutic tools for treating herpes zoster has been advocated by many investigators. However its efficacy is controversial at present. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to examine the role of stellate ganglion block in the prevention of postherpetic neuralgia and relationships between the time of this treatment and the outbreak of postherpetic neuralgia. METHODS: Twenty patients over the age of fifty with herpes zoster were included in this study. Before treatment, we randomly divided patients into two groups, A and B. Group A was treated with stellate ganglion block and acyclovir and group B was treated with acyclovir alone. Also we subdivided each group by starting treatment time into group 1 and 2. Group 1 was defined as the patients who began treatment within 2 weeks of the onset of the skin lesion. We observed the severity of pain and the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia according to each group.
Acyclovir ; Herpes Zoster* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Neuralgia, Postherpetic ; Research Personnel ; Skin ; Stellate Ganglion*

The administration of local anesthetics or steroids via the lumbar approach to the epidural space is one of the most common procedures performed in contemporary pain management by the pain specialist. This technique is useful in a variety of chronic benign pain syndromes, including lumbar radiculopathy, low back syndrome, spinal stenosis, and vertebral compression fractures. Given the increased number of epidural nerve blocks being performed, some have reported unexpected complications of a transient or permanent nature and of varying degrees of severity. However, no case report has been issued that includes objective magnetic resonance imaging data showing a transient asymptomatic intraspinal cyst-like lesion after epidural nerve block. We experienced a case of a transient asymptomatic intraspinal cyst-like lesion after administering an epidural steroid and local anesthetic injection to a 59 year old female patient suffering from a back pain with multiple old vertebral compression fractures and herniated intervertebral discs. The intraspinal cyst-like lesion was found incidentally by magnetic resonance imaging after an epidural nerve block. We report upon this case and provide subjective data.
Anesthetics, Local ; Back Pain ; Epidural Space ; Female ; Fractures, Compression ; Humans ; Intervertebral Disc ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Nerve Block* ; Pain Management ; Radiculopathy ; Specialization ; Spinal Stenosis ; Steroids