Welcome to the 11^th Volume of Pain Management

Abstract

I would like to welcome our readers to volume 11 of Pain Management. Since the launch of the journal in 2011, the title has gone from strength to strength, and we are delighted to bring you a new year of content. We are starting off this issue with a look back on some of our article highlights from 2020, alongside some of this month’s key content.

Keywords::

• chronic pain
• content highlights
• COVID-19
• highly read content
• opioids

In this issue

The first issue of 2021 features a wide range of research, and I have selected three papers to highlight here. Regional anesthesia, when performed with appropriate monitoring and by adequately trained providers, can significantly reduce the risk and increase the availability of safe anesthesia in resource-limited settings. In their research article, Moll et al. discuss a pilot 4-week regional anesthesia curriculum, including lectures and hands-on teaching, followed by knowledge attainment tests, at the Addis Ababa University, College of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Ethiopia [1].

Low back pain (LBP) can affect the quality of life of sufferers in a variety of ways, and is estimated to affect one in five people, leading to considerable strain on healthcare systems. In their meta-analysis, Barros Dos Santos et al. assess the effects of physical exercise on LBP and cortisol levels in adults with nonspecific chronic LBP [2].

Osteoarthritis is a chronic condition, with patients suffering from pain that often increases in severity over time. In their review article, Fayet and Hagen examine how understanding osteoarthritis pain characteristics and their relation to the disease process could inform treatment choice when applying well-established treatment guidelines [3].

Content highlights of 2020

As shown in Table 1, the top ten most read content in the journal in 2020 (as of 5 November 2020) spans a wide range of key topics in the field of pain management.

Table 1. Top Pain Management 2020 articles by readership^†.

Rank	Full-text downloads	Article type	Title	Authors	Volume (issue)	Altmetric score	Dimensions score	Ref.
1	2044	Review	Minimally invasive lumbar decompression: a review of indications, techniques, efficacy and safety	Jain S, Deer T, Sayed D et al.	10(5)	8		[4]
2	1613	Review	Abuse-deterrent opioid analgesics: a guide for clinicians	Carinci AJ	10(1)	2	1	[5]
3	1570	Short communication	Ultrasound-guided cooled radiofrequency ablation of the genicular nerves: a technique paper	Lash D, Frantz E, Hurdle MFB	10(3)	3	1	[6]
4	1554	Review	Nonprescription drugs recommended in guidelines for common pain conditions	Hagen M, Alchin J	10(2)	6		[7]
5	1404	Editorial	How have the views on myofascial pain and its treatment evolved in the past 20 years? From spray and stretch and injections to pain science, dry needling and fascial treatments	Dommerholt J	10(2)	8	2	[8]
6	1291	Device evaluation	A technological overview of cooled radiofrequency ablation and its effectiveness in the management of chronic knee pain	Kapural L, Deering JP	10(3)			[9]
7	1163	Review	LPA receptor signaling as a therapeutic target for radical treatment of neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia	Ueda H	10(1)	2	2	[10]
8	1019	Drug evaluation	Buprenorphine buccal film for chronic pain management	Hale M, Gimbel J, Rauck R	10(4)	20	1	[11]
9	956	Editorial	Impact of COVID-19 on chronic pain patients: a pain physician’s perspective	Javed S, Hung J, Huh BK	10(5)	2	1	[12]
10	570	Research article	Subcutaneous methylnaltrexone for opioid-induced constipation in advanced-illness patients with or without active cancer	Chamberlain BH, Rhiner M, Slatkin NE, Stambler N, Israel RJ	10(2)	6		[13]

† As at 5 November 2020.

Opioid use and misuse has been a subject of scrutiny in recent years, and in their review article, Carinci summarizes the regulatory issues involved in the development of abuse-deterrent formulations of opioids and clarifies abuse-deterrence claims in product labels, in order to assist clinicians in critically evaluating the available evidence pertaining to the abuse-deterrent features of opioid analgesics [5].

As noted in Hagen and Alchin’s review article, the increased availability of analgesics at nonprescription doses allows patients to take control of their own pain; however, patients often still seek advice from their doctor or pharmacist regarding the best therapy to use, and there is a multitude of guidelines available across many pain conditions [7]. In their article, Hagen and Alchin aim to provide a concise summary of clinical guidelines for the most common pain conditions, to aid decision-making for healthcare providers. Of note, this review also features an informative infographic, a feature we encourage in all our relevant articles.

It goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on healthcare, and the field of pain management is no exception. As shown in Table 1, an editorial on this topic features in our most read content for 2020, and provides a pain physician’s perspective on the impact of COVID-19 on chronic pain patients [12].

All articles in the top ten and beyond represent some key issues of relevance to pain physicians, and I encourage our readers to visit the full articles to learn more. I look forward to seeing the hot topics that emerge throughout 2021.

Conclusion

As always, our aim is to provide content to our readers that aid in the management of their patients, and I hope the articles published in 2020 met this aim. I would like to thank all our Editorial Board members, authors, peer reviewers and readers for supporting the journal, especially during such a challenging period of time. We look forward to working with you all again in 2021, and welcome presubmission enquiries should you be interested in contributing to the journal yourself.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

L Dormer is an employee of Future Medicine Ltd. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.