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Prevalence, Etiology, and Management of Neuropathic Pain in an Indian Cancer Hospital

Neuropathic pain is still an under-diagnosed and undertreated problem in third world countries. This retrospective study was undertaken to detect the prevalence, etiology and treatment profile of neuropathic pain in cancer. During January–December 2007, 716 new cancer pain patients were examined in Tata Memorial Hospital Pain Clinic. A total of 180 patients with a mean age of 47.14 yrs were found to have neuropathic pain characteristics on the basis of clinical impression, site of pain and the underlying cause i.e. due to tumor itself or cancer therapy. Head and neck cancer (32.2%) was found to be the most common cause of neuropathic pain, followed by breast (20.6%), thoracic (14.4%), genitourinary or gynecology (10.0% each), GI (9.4%), and medical oncology (2.8%). About 56% patients were post surgery, 44.4% post chemotherapy and 51.1% patients were post radiotherapy. The most common site of pain was thoracic (36.7%) due to primary or secondary metastatic disease. Pricking type of pain was the most characteristic feature (47.8%) followed by shooting pain (38.3%). The mean pain score was 5.96 ± 1.5 (SD) and mean duration (months) of pain was 2.8 ± 2.5. Neuropathic pain was found commonly associated with somatic pain (59.4%). The most common pharmacological agents prescribed were: tricyclic antidepressants (93.9%), anticonvulsants (66%), Opioids (85%), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (97.2%). Only 35% patients followed up more than once at the pain clinic. The most common and challenging patients were of orofacial pain. Nerve blocks techniques have a limited role in neuropathic pain.