Latest Epidural Stories

Apharma Inc. (NYSE: ALO), a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, announced today that its affiliate has entered into a license agreement with DURECT Corporation (NASDAQ: DRRX) of Cupertino, California for the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize an investigational transdermal bupivacaine patch currently under development for the treatment of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia ("PHN"). "Today's announcement continues to solidify Alpharma's position as a...

By KATIE COOKSEY Spinal patient Mohammad Zamir is flying to India for treatment after waiting more than six months for an NHS procedure. He is spending about pounds2,000 on travelling abroad for the injection he needs to treat a prolapsed disc. The 38-year-old, of Pleydell Street, Sneyd Green, Stoke-on- Trent, says he has lost his pounds4,000-a-month interpreter job due to being immobile and in pain for so long. He plans to apply for compensation for loss of earnings. And Mr Zamir, a...

CUPERTINO, Calif., June 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DURECT Corporation announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted to DURECT orphan drug designation for bupivacaine for relief of persistent pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN). Bupivacaine is the active pharmaceutical ingredient in ELADUR(TM), DURECT's investigational transdermal drug patch. If ELADUR is the first bupivacaine product approved for PHN, under the 1983 Orphan Drug Act ELADUR will...

By Lee, Yung Tanaka, Motoshi; Carvalho, Jose C A Background and Objectives: Preprocedural lumbar ultrasound is a valuable tool to assess anatomical landmarks and predict the depth of the epidural space. Variations of the ligamentum flavum sonoanatomy are occasionally observed; however, no literature is available as to their incidence or clinical significance. We hypothesize that abnormal sonoanatomy of the lumbar spine detected by ultrasound can be associated with an increase in...

By Hong, Jeong-Yeon Lim, Kyung T Background and Objective: Surgical stress and general anesthesia suppress immune function. Preemptive epidural analgesia can affect the perioperative immune responses, and influence cancer management. Methods: Forty women undergoing elective laparoscopic radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer were allocated to this prospective, randomized, double-blind trial. Before inducing anesthesia, 2 mg morphine dissolved in 15 mL of 1 % lidocaine (preemptive group) or...

By LAURA CUMMING THERE are relatively few fatalities on the table," the surgeon cheerily announced, "though you obviously have to be careful with the carotid artery. We go in through the front of the neck, whip out the discs and replace them with filigree metal." At the time I thought he said something about gold but perhaps I was just flustered with amazement. For this was a revelation. Nobody had yet suggested that whatever was wrong with me might warrant actual surgery. Nine months...

By Melanie Lefkowitz, Newsday, Melville, N.Y. Dec. 17--Joan Grochowsky, a 52-year-old Roslyn Heights woman hobbled by searing and mysterious back pain, drove with her husband in the summer of 1999 to the busy Plainview clinic of a doctor named Harvey Finkelstein. Visibly concerned by her condition, Finkelstein directed her to go straight to the hospital so he could begin epidural injections. He didn't even want her to get back in the car. An employee pushed her in a wheelchair to Plainview...

By Kocum, A Turkoz, A; Ulger, H; Sener, M; Arslan, G SUMMARY Ropivacaine is potentially less cardiotoxic and neurotoxic than bupivacaine. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of ropivacaine 0.25% and bupivacaine 0.25% for surgical anaesthesia and postoperative analgesia during lumbar plexus and sciatic nerve block in high-risk patients. We performed combined lumbar plexus and sciatic nerve blockade on 62 consecutive ASA III or IV patients undergoing unilateral hip or femur...

By Ernst, Dennis J Throughout human history, pain and its alleviation have been at the heart of healthcare. The cruel irony is that sometimes we have to inflict a little pain to prevent an appreciable amount of pain. Such is the case with phlebotomy. When performed on infants, the pain not only affects the patient but also can be distressing to the collector and parents. It is no small wonder then that pain during infant phlebotomy has been so intensely researched and has led to the...

Corrects time in 2nd paragraph By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women coached through their first delivery do not fare much better than those who just do what feels natural, according to a study released on Friday. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern found that women who were told to push 10 seconds for every contraction gave birth 13 minutes faster than those who were not given specific instructions. But they said the difference has little impact on the...