Multimodal Analgesia with Local Wound Infiltration and Intravenous Parecoxib for Thyroidectomy.

Background and objective: Adequate postoperative pain control is an important component to enhance recovery. Multimodal analgesia with various pain control techniques has been widely used to alleviate postoperative pain. The use of either wound infiltration or a superficial cervical plexus block has been reported to be effective for pain management after thyroid surgery. The present study evaluated the effect of multimodal analgesia using lidocaine wound infiltration combined with intravenous parecoxib for patients monitored after thyroidectomy. Materials and Methods: A total of 101 patients with a multimodal analgesia protocol being monitored after thyroidectomy were enrolled. After the induction of anesthesia, multimodal analgesia was performed through wound infiltration of 1% lidocaine and epinephrine at a ratio of 1:200,000 (5 µg/mL) combined 40 mg intravenous parecoxib before skin excision. Patients were divided into two groups for this retrospective analysis based on the injection dose of lidocaine they received. Patients in Group I (the control, n = 52) received a 5 mL injection solution, while those in Group II (the study, n = 49) received a 10 mL dosage in a time-sequential manner, in accordance with a previous clinical trial. The primary outcome was measuring postoperative pain intensity at rest, as well as during motion and coughing, which was measured at the postoperative anesthetic care unit (PACU) and on the first day after the operation (POD 1) in the ward. Pain intensity was assessed using a numerical rating scale (NRS). The secondary outcomes were postoperative adverse events including anesthetic-related side effects, as well as airway and pulmonary complications. Results: Most of the patients reported no pain or mild pain during the observation period. The patients in Group II had a lower pain intensity during motion than Group I (NRS 1.47 ± 0.89 vs. 1.85 ± 0.96, p = 0.043) when measured at the postoperative anesthetic care unit. Pain intensity during coughing was also significantly lower in the study group than in the control group (NRS 1.61 ± 0.95 vs. 1.96 ± 0.79, p = 0.049) when measured at the postoperative anesthetic care unit. There were no severe adverse events in either of the groups. Only one patient (1.9%) in Group I experienced temporary vocal palsy. Conclusions: The use of lidocaine with an equal volume of intravenous parecoxib provided comparable analgesia with minimal adverse events when monitoring thyroidectomy.

Analysis of Taiwan patents for the medicinal mushroom "Niu-Chang- Chih".

"Niu-Chang-Chih" (Antrodia cinnanomea) is a medicinal mushroom that has only been collected from the aromatic tree, Cinnamomum kanehirai, which is native to Taiwan. A total of 105 Taiwan patent applications and patents for "Niu-Chang-Chih" were collected and analyzed. Patent applications and granted patents claiming newly identified functional components from "Niu-Chang-Chih," biologically pure cultures of the mushroom strain, and cultivation of "Niu-Chang-Chih" were examined. Several applications and patents claim identified active compounds from "Niu-Chang- Chih," which provide better patent protection. These newly identified functional compounds include cyclohexanones, maleic and succinic acid derivatives, labdane diterpenoids, and benzenoids. Newly identified functional proteins include a glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase (GFD), a glycoprotein named ACA1, and a laccase. Newly identified functional polysaccharides include ACP1, ACP2, and ACP3. The number of patents for newly identified compounds and their uses are expected to continue growing.