Pain Therapy

Healthy volunteer during a standardised clinical pain model (picture from Koppert W, University of Erlangen-Nüremberg)

From: Koppert W. et al: Anesthesiology; 2001; 95:395-402

The aim of our main projects is the prevention of perioperative and postoperative pain, a crucial point to prevent chronic pain development. Preemptive analgesia is an important concept in this research field and therefore we study different pain prevention and therapy models:

• Continuous wound infusion for different surgical procedures (ongoing multicentre study with the Anaesthesia Department of the University Children Hospital Zürich, headed by Prof. Markus Weiss)
• Models of postoperative pain treatments for ambulant surgery (e.g. continuous wound infusion at home)
• Optimisation of perioperative analgesia starting pain therapy already at the premedication with different pharmacological approaches
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS, ‘Morbus Sudeck’): different pharmacological and interventional therapy approaches
• Chronic pain: development of different interdisciplinary pain concepts
• Neuropathic pain: study of mechanisms and therapy options on the human model
• Effects of different anaesthetics on pain, pain modulation and neuropathic pain on the human model

Ongoing projects:

Continuous wound infusion for:

• Minimal invasive hip arthroplasty
   
  Wound Catheter over  Closed Capsule

1st Prize in the category clinical research at the; 8th Day of Clinical Research Zürich 2009: Continuous epicapsular ropivacaine 0.3% infusion after minimal invasive hip replacement. A prospective, randomised, double-blinded study comparing the PAINfusor with the morphine-PCA. J. Aguirre, C. Neudörfer, C. Dora, F. Kalberer, K. Rentsch, G. Ekatodramis, A. Borgeat

• Scoliosis surgery (multi-centre study with the Anaesthesia Department of the University Children Hospital Zürich, headed by Prof. Markus Weiss)
   
  
• Spondylodesis
  
  

Preemptive analgesia

• Oxycodone for pain treatment supplementation after major surgery on the different joints
• Spinal anaesthesia and intrathecal analgesia after one level spondylodesis / discectomy