iovera® Device: For Treatment of Breakthrough Pain?

The marketplace for pain management products is changing...and many devices have come onto the market for this purpose. The early generation products, such as spinal cord stimulators and TENS units are still in use today..but more and more new devices have entered the scene.

X-ray of knee replacement

One such device is undergoing clinical trials right now. It's called iovera® and it's already FDA approved for breakthrough pain. The current trials are focused on post-surgical management of pain in knee replacement patients. There is a lot of interest in this product--according to Myoscience, the California based product developer, enrollment for the study filled up ahead of schedule!

This device is a little different from some of the earlier devices because of its use for breakthrough pain. The earlier products I am most familiar with deliver a constant baseline level of pain relief--if breakthrough pain should occur while using these earlier products, it is managed using medication or some other pain relief technique.

It's way too early to predict any outcomes of this study yet..but here again, the push is on to find methods of pain relief that do not pose any risk of addiction to the patient. Hear, here!

You can read the original press release here. The product web site can be found here.

Sources: PressReleaseRocket; iovera® health; wikimedia

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Living with Chronic pain hits the big screen!

Been to the movies lately? Jennifer Aniston is on the big screen in a recent release titled "Cake." Her character, Claire is a victim of chronic pain...she belongs to a support group, where all of the members are coming to terms with the suicide of one of their members. Of course, she also takes pain medication and addiction is another of her problems...and of course there's more! I guess I am writing this post just to bring readers' attention to the fact that Hollywood has become aware of the crisis that is chronic pain. This movie is a testament to that. People that don't have to live with this kind of pain don't fully understand the whole story. Maybe this movie will shed some light on the issues. Here is the official trailer for the movie: Sources: prweb;NorthJersey.com;YouTube

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