Pain Management: Best Practices and Recent Advances - Essay Example

"Pain Management: Best Practices and Recent Advances" is a perfect example of a paper on care. Pain management is an integral part of several treatment strategies and is also vital to the overall health of the patient. There are several newer forms of pain management methods that have been put into practice. Post-surgical pain is commonly experienced by most patients and this pain has to be treated as it may give rise to various complications such as hypertension and myocardial infarction. Newer treatments for post-surgical pain management include the use of alkaloids such as capsaicin, anti-epileptic drugs such as Gabapentin and its derivative Pregabalin, alpha-2 agonist drugs such as dexmedetomidine and clonidine, the receptor agonist with increased affinity, tapentadol, extended-release epidural morphine, and the use of sub-anesthetic dosage of ketamine (Harsoor, 2011).

In the case of chronic lower back pain NSAIDs, structured exercise, spinal manipulative therapy and spinal fusion surgery in cases where non-surgical therapy has failed have been the treatment of choice (Noertjojo, Martin & Dunn, 2012). In the case of palliative care routine drugs and other pain management strategies have found to be effective in alleviating the pain.  In the case of pain associated with cancer treatment with non-steroidal drugs, opioids, radionuclides, and radiotherapy have been found to be effective.

Long-acting strong opioids are recommended as a best practice in pain management for people with moderate to server cancer pain.  The use of bisphosphonates in the treatment of bone pain in malignant cases has been found to be effective. In the case of neuropathic pain use of anti-depressants such as the tricyclic drug amitriptyline, duloxetine, and venlafaxine or anticonvulsants like gabapentin or pregabalin has been administered as the first-line of treatment according to the latest studies (Pain Management in palliative care, n.d). Advanced pain management techniques in the case of palliative care include spinal infusion of opioids and the use of imaging techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.

In cases where conventional drug therapy is ineffective newer techniques like the neuro-destructive dorsal route entry zone lesioning, chordotomy, trigeminal nerve lesioning using the foramen ovale technique can be employed. For patients with neuropathic pain, invasive neuromodulatory techniques such as peripheral and central nervous system stimulation techniques are being used (Specialized Pain Management).