This narrative review summarises current evidence on intra-articular injection therapies for knee osteoarthritis. Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a major global cause of disability, particularly among older adults, prompting growing interest in non-operative strategies that alleviate symptoms, preserve joint function, and delay surgical intervention. Established options including corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid, remain widely utilized for short and intermediate-term symptom relief. Regenerative approaches such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have gained prominence due to their potential anti-inflammatory and reparative effects. Novel biologic agents, including exosomes, atelocollagen, and isolated growth factors, show promise in supporting tissue repair and modulating joint homeostasis. Given the wide variability in mechanisms, efficacy, and safety profiles, selection of treatment regimen should be individualized based on disease severity, patient goals, and regulatory considerations. Overall, intra-articular injection therapies represent a diverse and rapidly evolving component of knee OA management. Continued high-quality randomized trials and standardized treatment protocols are essential to support evidence-based clinical decision-making and optimize patient outcomes.

Spinal neurocysticercosis (NCC) is an uncommon manifestation of NCC involving the spinal cord, meninges, nerve roots, and subarachnoid spaces. Although less common than intracranial disease, spinal involvement can cause substantial neurological morbidity because even small lesions within the confined spinal canal may produce progressive myelopathy. Disease may result from hematogenous dissemination or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spread of Taenia solium larvae and may present as intramedullary, intradural extramedullary, subarachnoid, or, rarely, extradural lesions. Clinical manifestations are diverse and include paraparesis, quadriparesis, cauda equina syndrome, and chronic meningitis. Magnetic resonance imaging is the diagnostic modality of choice, providing detailed assessment of lesion location, evolutionary stage, inflammatory activity, and associated complications. CSF analysis and immunological or molecular tests provide supportive evidence, while histopathological examination confirms the diagnosis when tissue is available. Treatment is individualized and may include antiparasitic agents, corticosteroids, and surgery when indicated. Although outcomes are generally favorable with early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, delayed treatment, extensive arachnoiditis, diffuse leptomeningeal disease, and established spinal cord damage may result in permanent neurological deficits. Further prospective studies are needed to refine diagnostic strategies and optimize management. PubMed database was searched from inception to 13 July 2026, for spinal neurocysticercosis and spinal cysticercosis.

Chronic pain is inherently subjective and must become communicable before it can be interpreted, socially recognized, and incorporated into clinical reasoning. Existing scholarship has examined pain expression, interpersonal responses, validation and invalidation, patient-clinician communication, family communication, and communicative disenfranchisement, but these phenomena have often been addressed within partly distinct research traditions. This conceptual article develops and delimits the pain communication fracture model (PCFM) through an integrative synthesis of pain science, health communication, illness narratives, interpersonal validation, communicative disenfranchisement, nocebo research, and pain education. The model distinguishes four analytical communicative registers-bodily experience, communicable expression, interpersonal interpretation, and clinical formulation-and three communicative fractures located in the transformations between them: CF1, expressibility; CF2, interpersonal legitimation; and CF3, clinical translation. The fractures are proposed as analytically distinguishable but potentially overlapping and dynamically interrelated processes, rather than as fixed stages, diagnostic categories, or established causal mechanisms. The PCFM links each fracture to preliminary indicators, plausible consequences, and potential mitigation strategies while accounting for patient agency, legitimate doubt, clinical judgment, and structural constraints. Its proposed contribution is integrative, architectural, and operational, rather than a claim to novelty for previously documented phenomena. The model remains unvalidated, and its value will depend on whether future research demonstrates that the three fractures are observable, sufficiently distinguishable, and useful for understanding chronic pain communication.

Pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet undergraduate medical education remains insufficient to prepare future physicians for its assessment and management. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has proposed a competency-based curriculum framework; however, its implementation in Brazilian medical education is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of pain education in Brazilian medical schools and assess its alignment with the IASP Curriculum Outline on Pain for Medicine. We conducted a national cross-sectional documentary analysis of all medical schools registered in the Brazilian Ministry of Education database between May 2024 and December 2025. Institutional websites were systematically screened for publicly available curricular documentation, and data were independently extracted by 2 reviewers. Variables included the presence of pain-related content, existence of a dedicated pain course, course workload, timing within the curriculum, and type of offering. Among 447 identified schools, 277 (62.0%) provided accessible curricular information. Only 47 institutions (16.9%) offered a stand-alone pain course, and 29 had detailed syllabi for item-level analysis. Most analyzed courses were mandatory and delivered in the early years of training. Alignment with IASP competencies was incomplete across all domains, with greater coverage of neurobiological and pharmacological content and limited inclusion of pain assessment and measurement, psychosocial and behavioral management, public health, ethics, and care for special populations. Pain education in Brazil is inconsistently structured and only partially aligned with international recommendations, indicating the need of comprehensive, competency-based curricular reform.