Ricerc@Sapienza

Abstract: In patients suffering from moderate-to-severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), subjected to hemodialysis (HD), pain is very common, but often underestimated. Opioids are still the mainstay of severe chronic pain management; however, their prescription in CKD and HD patients is still significantly low and pain is often under-treated. Altered pharmacokinetics and the lack of clinical trials on the use of opioids in patients with renal impairment increase physicians’ concerns in this specific population.

OBJECTIVE:

Context: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) can occur frequently after thoracic surgery. Objectives: This retrospective study aimed to determine CPSP prevalence, risk factors, neuropathic pain (NP) occurrence, and its impact on quality of life.

Low-impact laparoscopic (LIL) cholecystectomy is an innovative surgical protocol that combines the use of mini-laparoscopic instruments (3-mm ports) under a low- and stable-pressure pneumoperitoneum (8 mmHg), with the aim of minimizing the surgical invasiveness and the risks related to CO2insufflation on the peritoneal environment. In day-surgery settings, LIL may contribute to increase the surgical success due to several potential benefits in terms of postoperative pain intensity and time to full recovery.

Objective: Spontaneous or experimentally induced high blood pressure (BP) is associated with reduced pain perception, known as BP-related hypoalgesia. Despite its clinical implications, such as the interference with early detection of myocardial infarction in ‘at risk’ groups, the size of the association between high BP and pain has not yet been quantified. Moreover, the distinct association between high BP and physiological or psychological components of pain has not yet been considered so far.

Despite the growing interest on the effect of the social context on pain, whether and how different facets of interpersonal interactions modulate pain are still unclear. We tested whether personal (i.e., convenient for the self), moral (i.e., equitability of the transaction) or social (i.e., positive vs. negative feedback from others) valence of an interpersonal interaction differentially affects pain and the perceived fairness.

High blood pressure (BP) is associated with reduced pain sensitivity, known as BP-related hypoalgesia. The underlying neural mechanisms remain uncertain, yet arterial baroreceptor signaling, occurring at cardiac systole, is implicated. We examined normotensives using functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and pain stimulation during distinct phases of the cardiac cycle to test the hypothesized neural mediation of baroreceptor-induced attenuation of pain

While several studies have investigated corporeal illusions in patients who have suffered from a stroke or undergone an amputation, only anecdotal or single case reports have explored this phenomenon after spinal cord injury. Here we examine various different types of bodily misperceptions in a comparatively large group of 49 people with spinal cord injury in the post-acute and chronic phases after the traumatic lesion onset. An extensive battery of questionnaires concerning a variety of body related feelings was administered and the results were correlated to the main clinical variables.

There is a strong relationship between palatable diet and pain sensitivity, and the cannabinoid and opioid systems might play an important role in this correlation. The palatable diet used in many animal models of obesity is the cafeteria (CAF) diet, based on human food with high sugar, salt, and fat content. In this study, we investigated whether long-term exposure to a CAF diet could modify pain sensitivity and explored the role of the cannabinergic system in this modification.

Pain, particularly chronic pain, is still an unsolved medical condition. Central goals in pain control are to provide analgesia of adequate efficacy and to reduce complications associated with the currently available drugs. Opioids are the mainstay for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. However, opioid pain medications also cause detrimental side effects, thus highlighting the need of innovative and safer analgesics. Opioids mediate their actions via the activation of opioid receptors, with the mu-opioid receptor as the primary target for analgesia, but also for side effects.