Results suggested that all therapies had little to no effect on pain and other patient-important outcomes .
Our findings are inconsistent with major clinical practice guidelines ; the available evidence suggests no beneficial effects of any therapies that research ers have evaluated in r and omized controlled trials
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Central poststroke pain is a chronic neuropathic disorder that follows a stroke .
Current research on its management is limited , and no review has evaluated all therapies for central poststroke pain .
Incidence of central post-stroke pain
& NA ; Central post‐stroke pain ( CPSP ) is a neuropathic pain syndrome characterized by constant or intermittent pain in a body part occurring after stroke and associated with sensory abnormalities in the painful body part . This study describes CPSP prospect ively during the first year after stroke and characterizes the cerebrovascular lesions and neurological signs associated with the CPSP syndrome . Two hundred and sixty‐seven consecutively admitted patients younger than 81 years were examined in the first week , at 1 , 6 and 12 months after stroke . Sensibility to touch ( cotton wool ) , temperature ( 20 ° C and 40 ° C ) , and pinprick was studied using the contralateral face and extremity as control . A CT scan was done 8 ( median ) days ( range : 1–34 days ) after stroke . Two hundred and seven ( 78 % ) patients surviving at least 6 months who were able to communicate reliably formed the basis of the study . Abnormal sensory signs were found at least once in 87 ( 42 % ) patients . CPSP was found in 16 ( 8 % ) patients of whom all but 1 patient also had evoked dysesthesia or allodynia . Further 1 patient had persistent evoked dysesthesia but denied pain . CPSP was not related to sex or age . In patients with single acute cerebral lesions there were no relation between size or location of the lesions and the presence of CPSP . The pain was light in 6 ( 3 % ) patients and moderate to severe in 10 ( 5 % ) patients . The pain quality was usually lacerating or aching . Fifteen ( 94 % ) patients had decreased temperature , touch and pain sensibility and 9 ( 56 % ) reported allodynia to cold stimulation and another 9 ( 56 % ) patients reported this to touch . Pain onset was within 1 month after stroke in 10 ( 63 % ) patients , between 1 and 6 months in 3 ( 19 % ) patients and more than 6 months after stroke in 3 ( 19 % ) patients
Results suggested that all therapies had little to no effect on pain and other patient-important outcomes .
Our findings are inconsistent with major clinical practice guidelines ; the available evidence suggests no beneficial effects of any therapies that research ers have evaluated in r and omized controlled trials
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Central poststroke pain is a chronic neuropathic disorder that follows a stroke .
Current research on its management is limited , and no review has evaluated all therapies for central poststroke pain .