Complex Regional Pain Syndrome type I of the upper limb - treatment based on Stress Loading Program: a case study

The daily life of an individual suffering from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome type I (CPRS I) becomes limited, because this syndrome causes signs and symptoms located in the affected limb, and may occur in other parts. From this premise, this study aims to present the contributions of Occupational Therapy and the Rehabilitation Stress Loading Program for a subject with CRPS I in the upper limb, attended by the Group of Pain from the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM), Rio Grande do Sul state. This research is characterized as a case study, experimental, which deals with pre and post occupational therapy intervention. The instruments used for data collection were the protocols of Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH), the International Classification of Disability, Functioning and Health (ICF), the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), the Visual Analogue Scale, and goniometry (EVA). After assessment, the subject was exposed to the treatment of compressive active resistive exercises; after this treatment was completed, the subject was reassessed. It was observed that the treatment applied has contributed to the reduction of the pain and to the improvement in the Range of Motion (ROM) of the subject. The use of the stress protocol and active compression contributed significantly to the reduction of pain, ADM gain and occupational performance improvement

Impact of autologous blood transfusion on the use of pack of red blood cells in coronary artery bypass grafting surgery

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of Cell Saver autologous blood transfusion system (CS) on the use of packed red blood cells (pRBC) in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective cross-sectional study in 87 patients undergoing primary elective CABG with miniaturized cardiopulmonary bypass (miniCPB), divided in two groups: 44 without-CS and 43 with-CS. We investigated the necessity of absolute use and the volume of packed red blood cells (pRBC) in each group, as well as cardiovascular risk factors, presurgical variables and intraoperative surgical parameters. All data were collected from medical records and there was no randomization or intervention on group selection. Statistical analysis was performed with Student t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test and χ² test, with a 5% significance level. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of cardiovascular risk factors and pre and intraoperative variables. Evaluating the absolute use of pRBC during surgery, there was a statistically significant difference (P=0.00008) between the groups without-CS (21/44 cases; 47.7%) and with-CS (4/43 cases; 9.3%). There was also a statistically significant difference (P=0.000117) in the volumes of pRBC between the groups without-CS (198.651258.65ml) and with-CS (35.061125.67ml). On the other hand, in the early postoperative period (up to 24h) there was no difference regarding either the absolute use or the volumes of pRBC between both studied groups. CONCLUSION: Autologous erythrocyte transfusion with CS use reduces the use of intraoperative homologous pRBC in coronary artery bypass grafting surgeries associated with miniCPB