Interventional Palliative Pain Procedures for Cancer Patients
摘要
Oral pain medications, especially opioid therapy, have traditionally been the mainstay of treatment for severe cancer pain. However, cognitive and gastrointestinal adverse effects may limit their efficacy, especially in elderly and frail patients. With the advancement in minimally invasive interventional pain procedures, many options are now available to treat patients with many different types of cancer-related pain in conjunction with standard multimodal pain regimens. Interventional pain procedures target nerve distributions and utilize local anesthetics, chemical or radiofrequency ablative agents, or in some cases alter the neuromodulation of pain signals to provide analgesia. Just as cancer-related pain is a diverse field comprising of many pathologies, the interventional techniques evolve to match the nociceptive and neuropathic components of different disease processes. Depending on the anatomical target and nerve distribution, sympathetic or peripheral nerve blocks can be utilized to provide short-term relief in the range of weeks or months of relief. Conversely, for the well-informed patient with the right indications, medical devices such as spinal cord or peripheral nerve stimulators can be implanted along the peripheral or central nervous system to provide longer-term relief on the range of months to years. Almost all of the described procedures are performed outpatient in surgical centers with ultrasound or fluoroscopy suites, and most patients will only require minimal to moderate sedation.