Purpose of Review To evaluate effectiveness and harms of opioids compared to nonopioid analgesics as treatment of moderate to severe acute pain in the prehospital setting. Read the Article >>

  An award from the Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation (NREF) can have an extraordinary impact on a neurosurgeon’s career. “This has been a productive and rewarding year for my growth as an academic neurosurgeon. I have gone from being a resident with some interest in research to an investigator with much larger ideas and […]

The NIH Office of Pain Policy is pleased to announce the release of the Federal Pain Research Strategy.  The Federal Pain Research Strategy (FPRS) is an effort of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) and the National Institutes of Health, Office of Pain Policy to oversee development of a long-term strategic plan to advance […]

Ellen L. Air, MD, PhD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Utilizing scientific theory for clinical application can lead to breakthroughs for patients. One remarkable example was the gate theory of pain rapidity of translation into a surgical treatment for pain. The description of dual pathways of sensory input to the […]

Jason M. Schwalb, MD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Cancer pain continues to be a significant problem since the mid 1980s, despite the promulgation of the World Health Organization (WHO) (1) analgesic ladder. The statistics are daunting: Pain is reported in 60-85 percent of those with advanced cancer (2). One-third of patients […]

Jennifer A. Sweet, MD; Jason M. Schwalb, MD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Although Americans comprise roughly 5 percent of the world’s population, they consume 99 percent of the world’s hydrocodone and 83 percent of its oxycodone, resulting in one opioid-related death every 35 minutes (1). In the setting of […]

Christopher J. Winfree, MD, FAANS; Sharona Ben-Haim, MD | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 The Point position is taken by Sharona Ben-Haim, MD. The Counterpoint position is taken by Christopher J. Winfree, MD, FAANS. Point: Neurosurgeons take care of patients in both acute and chronic pain and should have the capacity to treat […]

Jennifer A. Sweet, MD; Christopher J. Winfree, MD, FAANS; Jason M. Schwalb, MD, FAANS | Features AANS Neurosurgeon: Volume 26, Number 3, 2017 Organized neurosurgery continues to fight for our ability to provide safe, effective, evidence-based neurosurgical alternatives to manage chronic pain and reduce long-term opioid prescribing. Amidst a nationwide opioid epidemic, the political climate […]

(BPT) – Doctors hate seeing patients suffering from chronic pain, and not just because their instinct is immediately to want to help their patients to feel better. One of the primary challenges doctors confront is that even though chronic pain is common, it can be extremely difficult to diagnose and treat. The condition can be […]

“Consider that every day, 44 Americans die as a result of prescription opioid overdose, and the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths has nearly quadrupled since 2002. In addition, the nation is seeing an increase in opioid-related pediatric exposures and poisonings. There has been a distressing rise in neonatal abstinence syndrome as a result of women […]