Article date: January 2012
By: Verna Aykanat, Melanie Gentgall, Nancy Briggs, Desmond Williams, Sharon Yap, Paul Rolan, in Volume 73, Issue 1, pages 37-45
WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT
AIM
This study compared the responses between patients with unilateral sciatica and pain‐free volunteers following administration of intradermal capsaicin.
RESULTS
Sciatica subjects experienced higher spontaneous pain and hyperalgesia responses in both legs compared with pain‐free volunteers. The largest mean difference in spontaneous pain was 2.8 cm (95% CI 1.6, 3.9) at 5 min in the unaffected leg following 10 µg. The largest mean difference in hyperalgesia was 19.7 cm (95% CI 12.4, 27.0) at 60 min in the unaffected leg following 10 µg. Allodynia was greater in patients than in controls with the largest mean difference of 2.9 cm (95% CI 1, 4.8) at 5 min following 10 µg in the affected leg. Allodynia was also higher in the affected leg compared with the unaffected leg in sciatica patients with the highest mean difference of 3.0 cm (95% CI 1.2, 4.7) at 5 min following 10 µg.
CONCLUSIONS
The responses to intradermal capsaicin are quantitatively and qualitatively different in unilateral sciatica patients compared with pain‐free controls.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2011.04059.x
View this article