Atlas of Common Pain Syndromes, 4th Edition

Harald Breivik

doi:10.1515/sjpain-2018-2002

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Atlas of Common Pain Syndromes, 4th Edition

Harald Breivik

Published/Copyright: December 7, 2018

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From the journal Scandinavian Journal of Pain Volume 19 Issue 1

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Waldman Steven D. Atlas of Common Pain Syndromes 4th Elsevier 2018 978-0-323-54731-4 568 pages

Professor Steven D. Waldman continues to improve his already excellent book illustrating common (and some not so common) pain syndromes. In this fourth edition, he describes 137 pain syndromes – from tension type headache to hammer toe. The clinical signs and symptoms of each syndrome are described, as are test-procedures, differential diagnosis, and treatment options with risks of possible complications and pitfalls. Clinical pearls and suggested readings end each chapter. All pain syndromes are well illustrated with focus on anatomy, risk-factors, precipitating factors, test-procedures, and how to treat with injections, when indicated.

Although the title indicates that this book is about common pain syndromes, I have to admit that there are also a number of less common, at least less known pain syndrome, e.g. the hyoid syndrome, the plastic bag palsy syndrome, the carpal boss syndrome, the latissimus dorsi syndrome, ischial bursitis from prolonged riding on a bicycle or a horse. The reader will understand the differences between a jumper’s knee and a runner’s knee.

Treatment options listed are often conservative, but injections with a local anaesthetic and a steroid anti-inflammatory drug are a bit too often mentioned as possible treatment when conservative approaches do not lead to improvement.

“Tennis elbow” and “Achilles tendinitis”, that are tendinosis, or tendinopathies, they are not inflammation of tendons as indicated by the term tendinitis. Especially in a chronic stage, they should not be injected with glucocorticoids, and they should not be treated with active concentric muscle activities, but with graded eccentric muscle contraction training [1].

The “bio” part of the biopsychosocial understanding of acute and chronic pain is well taken care of, as is reasonable in this textbook on diagnosis of pain syndrome, but chronic pain conditions always contain psycho-social aspects that also must be considered [2].

Still, I strongly recommend that this book be available to trainees as well as to more experienced pain clinicians. It contains a rich collection of knowledge and clinical experience, well-illustrated, and with mostly balanced descriptions of aspects of treatment and outcome. This atlas should be in the department-libraries of all pain-clinics, departments of rheumatology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, also neurology and neurosurgical departments should have a copy: Even better, when possible, down-load the eBook version and make it available to everybody in the clinic, on their iPad/PC, or on their smart-phones.

References

[1] Peterson M, Butler S, Eriksson M, Svärdsudd K. A randomized controlled trial of eccentric vs. concentric graded exercise in chronic tennis elbow (lateral elbow tendinopathy). Clin Rehabil 2014;28:862–72.10.1177/0269215514527595Search in Google Scholar PubMed

[2] Peterson M, Breivik H. Even a “simple” pain condition such as “Tennis Elbow” is not only a somatic experience: body and mind are inseparable entities. Scand J Pain 2013;4:153–4.10.1016/j.sjpain.2013.05.002Search in Google Scholar PubMed

Published Online: 2018-12-07

Published in Print: 2019-01-28

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/sjpain-2018-2002