J Korean Pain Soc.
1998 May;11(1):101-104.
A Clinical Review of the Patients in the Kim Chan Pain Clinic
- Affiliations
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- 1Kim Chan Pain Clinic, Korea.
- 2Pain Clinic Aju University College of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
Abstract
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BACKGROUNDS: Twent five years have passed since the opening of the first pain clinic in korea,
in 1973 at Yonsei University Hospital. The number of pain clinics are gradually increasing in
recent times. It is important to plan for future pain clinics with emphasis on improving the
quality of pain management. Therefore we reviewed the patients in our hospital to help us in
planning for the future of our pain clinic.
METHODS
We analyzed 2656 patients who had visited our Kim Chan Pain Clinic, accordance to age, sex, disease, and type of treatment block, from July 1996 to August 1997.
RESULTS
The prevalent age group was in the fifties, 27.3%, seventy years and older compromised 9.2%. The most common disease were as follows: lower back pain (46.2%); cervical and upper extremities pain (23.1%); trigeminal neuralgia (7.2%); and hyperhydrosis (5.8%) Both nerve blocks and medication were prescribed as treatment. Lumbar epidural block (16.3%) and stellate ganglion block (15.6%) were the most frequent blocks performed among various nerve blocks. Among nerve block under C-arm guidance, lumbar facet joint block (24.4%) and lumbar root block (22.5%) were performed most frcquently. Trigeminal nerve block (18.4%), thoracic (17.0%) and lumbar sympathetic ganglion block (11.4%) were next most prevalent blocks performed frequent block.
CONCLUSION
Treatments at our hospital were focused on nerve blocks and medications prescriptions. Nerve blocks are of particular importance in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain. However in future, to raise the quality of pain management, we need to fucus on a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary team approach.
