Medical cannabis: severe pain after trauma
Posted on May 6, 2010 by john
The medical journal of medical attention Cases Journal puts some clinical cases of particular interest. Recently two articles have been devoted to patients treated with cannabis. Here we give account of the former scenario is a 33 year old male fell from a height of eight meters reporting a serious polytrauma. Fractured in fact the sixth cervical vertebra, skull, left arm, hip and femur with multiple herniations. Was therefore submitted to various surgical procedures, but it was greatly weakened. Had a disability of 75% in the upper body due to cervical fracture and was unable to read or computer work. The skull fracture caused him headaches and ringing. Presented spasms and pain in the arm with a wrist pain constantly 8 on a scale from 0 to 10 points, and burning sensations, but both ice and hammering. He had difficulty working with his left hand. Because of spinal cord injury suffered back spasms bilateral. Also reported moderate left hip pain. Were treated with physical therapy for two years, and had taken a long series of drugs including: Artrotec, Flexeril, ketorolac, Tylenol with codeine, Naprosyn, Percocet, gabapentin, Marinol (THC, the active ingredient that is most important cannabis but produced synthetically), Lyrica, Supradol, oxycodin and Oxycontin, as well Doxepin, Imovane, Cipralex, trazodone, Elavil, Efexor. Thus a wide range of anti-inflammatory analgesics, including opioids and a synthetic cannabinoid, anticonvulsants and antidepressants. Despite all this had not had satisfactory pain relief, which was constantly on a level of 5 to 10, and reported that drugs had become a “living dead”, unable to work and make a normal life.
The subject, a Canadian, became a member of the Green Cross Society of British Columbia, an association that has federal permission to distribute cannabis for medicinal purposes. The Association Cannabis delivery to its members in the form of the natural product. The case report presented had been chosen for the severity of his condition associated with his continued presence in the Society, which will allow clinical monitoring daily. The case described, according to the authors, however, was very similar to other four followed the same year, with similar results.
The patient took a total of 10 grams of cannabis per day, corresponding to an average of 420-500 mg of THC, 40-80 mg of CBD (cannabidiol) and 20-60 mg of CBN (cannabinol). There was a significant reduction in pain scores accompanied by an improvement in sleep, muscle spasms and quality of life. Currently, though not totally free from pain, the patient is able to do at least part of his volunteer work, go to the gym and live a life that resembles a normal life. In addition to cannabis only takes supplements, and when painful crises tincture of cannabis use (10 mg of THC and CBD 2 mg per drop), 15-25 drops as needed, reducing the severe pain in seconds. Also uses the vaporizer Volcano, 2-4 g per day. Medical examinations showed that all liver functions are normal.
According to the authors, possible side effects of medical cannabis are to be related to the strain has not corrected the patient’s symptoms, for example, if a patient has pain accompanied by anxiety and uses a strain with high and low concentrations of CBD and CBN THC, may have increased anxiety with little effect on pain. Moreover, according to the authors, people of Celtic origin (Scottish, Irish and Welsh) show greater resistance to Cannabis, also 3-5 times compared to people from other parts of Europe or Africa, and the patient concerned mother was Scottish, and this explains the high doses of THC required, higher than those reported in similar studies, but with people of diverse populations.
The authors conclude that the case reported is only one of many observed by Green Cross Society. With 70% of 4000 members suffering from chronic pain have been observed many times that people experience a significant reduction in pain using natural standardized cannabis. Often a better quality of life is achieved with the use of cannabis alone, or with a lower dose of opiates. The patient studied for about a year cannabis use only natural supplements, has recently undergone two additional surgeries to his back and hand and only used cannabis for pain postoperatively.