Symptoms after cancer and its treatment challenge the well-being of cancer survivors. Little is known about symptom co-occurrence and the burden experienced by cancer survivors. This study aims to estimate a symptom burden measure based on symptom clusters using self-reported symptoms in cancer survivors. The study utilized data on 40,766 cancer survivors (i.e., breast, prostate, colon, rectum, lung, melanoma, lymphoma, head/neck) diagnosed 2010-2019 from the Danish nationwide SEQUEL cohort. Twenty-two symptoms were assessed 2-12-years after diagnosis using validated self-reported instruments. Symptom severity was dichotomized into none/low versus moderate/severe. Exploratory factor analysis derived a structural equation model (SEM) describing the co-occurrence of symptoms in terms of latent variables (symptom clusters) from a subset of data (training data, n=28,076). Symptom scores for each cluster were estimated from the SEM and used as measures of symptom burden across cancer types in the remaining data (test data=9,366). The SEM included six symptom clusters: a pain-fatigue cluster, peripheral neuropathy and oedema cluster, gastrointestinal and urological symptoms cluster, psychological symptoms cluster, head and neck region symptoms cluster, and respiratory symptoms and infections cluster. Survivors of lymphoma, lung, and head/neck cancer had a higher symptom burden across all six clusters. Our study is the first to propose the use of SEM to quantify symptom burden in cancer survivors and demonstrate robust summaries of symptom burden across six symptom clusters. This approach may facilitate more nuanced comparisons of symptom burden across clinical and demographic groups and support targeted symptom management.

Neoplasms of the mandibular ascending ramus and condyle cause facial asymmetry, trismus, malocclusion, swelling in the temporomandibular joint area, and pain. Conventional surgeries require an external incision, with a risk of facial nerve injury and leaving a scar. This study aimed to establish a minimally invasive approach for mandibular ramus-condyle tumour resection, using intraoperative navigation and endoscopes. The safety and feasibility were assessed by cadaveric dissection. Nine patients with osteomas or osteochondromas occurring from the mandibular ascending ramus and condyle were included in this study. All patients underwent navigation-assisted transoral endoscopic resection of the tumours. Cadaveric dissection demonstrated how the transoral endoscopic approach to the mandibular ramus-condyle unit was established and enabled analysis of the anatomical structures. Mandibular tumours were successfully resected in all the patients, with a low incidence of postoperative complications, and the morphologies and functions of the mandible were satisfactorily preserved. The results indicate that navigation-assisted transoral endoscopic surgeries for the mandibular ramus-condyle tumours are feasible and effective in a preliminary clinical setting. Studies with larger sample sizes and further assessment of the navigation system are required to confirm the accuracy of the surgeries.

Musculoskeletal pain costs over $100 billion annually in the U.S., severely impacting daily life, especially chronic low back pain. Disparities in prevalence and management, particularly for Blacks/African Americans, are exacerbated by socioeconomic, cultural, and healthcare access barriers, leading to more severe pain and functional impairments. This scoping review aimed to examine the effectiveness of community health-driven, culturally tailored self-management interventions for musculoskeletal pain in Black/African Americans. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines, with a literature search conducted across multiple databases. Articles were included based on criteria, focusing on studies that examine the effectiveness and components of such interventions. Publications from peer-reviewed journals were searched using the databases PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus, employing the following search terms: "musculoskeletal pain," "chronic low back pain," "chronic neck pain," "chronic knee pain," "osteoarthritis," "self-management interventions," and "African Americans" or "Blacks", etc. A total of 9 articles were included for the review. The findings revealed that these interventions, which incorporate educational, behavioral, and physical components, show promise in reducing pain severity, improving self-efficacy, and enhancing function. The use of a community health-driven approach and cultural tailoring enhances the relevance and effectiveness of the interventions. However, research is limited by small sample sizes and short-term follow-ups, and most studies predominantly involve female participants. Conclusively, Community-driven, culturally tailored interventions can potentially improve outcomes for Blacks/African Americans suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain. Further research is needed to explore long-term effects, address gender imbalances in study populations, and develop more comprehensive interventions considering socioeconomic and cultural factors. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents the effectiveness of community health-driven, culturally tailored self-management interventions for musculoskeletal pain in Blacks/African Americans. These community-driven, culturally tailored interventions may help clinicians be more culturally informed and improve chronic and musculoskeletal pain outcomes among Blacks/African Americans.

Cyclists present with a broad range of musculoskeletal and neurologic injuries, both traumatic and overuse. The Spaulding Cycling Medicine Clinic is a cycling-specific multidisciplinary sports medicine clinic, employing a collaborative approach to management of cycling injury. This paper outlines the clinic structure and the demographics, training habits, injuries, and biomechanics of 323 adult patients across the first 9 years. The most common areas of chronic discomfort in this group were the knee, hip, and lumbar spine, and knee pain was the most frequent complaint that motivated patients to seek care. Neck pain was noted as an area of discomfort more frequently than as a chief complaint. Patients with a chief complaint of low back pain were more likely to demonstrate posterior pelvic tilt and lumbopelvic asymmetry on the bicycle. This is the first work we know of to comprehensively evaluate demographics, clinical presentation, and bicycle fit for a large sample of cyclists.

Side-locked headache is commonly regarded as a warning sign for secondary intracranial pathology; however, its musculoskeletal causes may be underrecognized. We report a series of seven patients with strictly unilateral headache consistently and temporally associated with the habitual clamping of a mobile phone between the neck and shoulder during hands-free multitasking. The headache was nonthrobbing, lacked migrainous or cranial autonomic features, and was reproducible with cervical palpation or sustained neck movements. Neurological examination and neuroimaging were normal in all cases. Cervical muscle tenderness, spasm, and trigger point-mediated referred pain were prominent findings. Conservative management focusing on avoidance of the implicated posture, posture correction, and physiotherapy was associated with substantial improvement or complete resolution in all patients. This series highlights neck-shoulder mobile phone clamping as a common posture-related trigger for cervicogenic or myofascial headache and underscores the importance of assessing smartphone-handling behaviors in patients with unilateral headache. These findings are hypothesis-generating and do not establish causality.

Whiplash is an injury caused by a sudden acceleration-deceleration of the head, transferring energy to the spine. The clinical symptoms after the injury are known as whiplash-associated disorders (WAD), and the mechanisms of its chronicity and recovery remain unclear. We aimed to explore the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and anxiety with disability, pain catastrophizing, and illness perceptions in patients with chronic whiplash-associated disorders (cWAD). We carried out a multi-center cross-sectional study in which 120 participants with cWAD were recruited. Main outcomes included sociodemographic, PTSD symptoms, anxiety, pain catastrophizing, illness perceptions, and disability. A correlation and a multiple linear regression analysis were performed. In cWAD, PTSD symptoms correlated positively with anxiety (r = 0.667; p = 0.01). Anxiety also shows positive associations with the illness perceptions questionnaire (IPQ-R) identity subscale (r = 0.378; p = 0.01). In regression analyses, pain-related anxiety (PASS) was significantly associated with PTSD symptoms (IES-R), neck disability (NDI), and illness identity (IPQ-R Identity), explaining 58.5% of the variance (R[2] = 0.585, p < 0.001). These findings highlight the relevance of PTSD symptoms and anxiety in relation to pain-related disability and illness perceptions in patients with cWAD.

Neck pain caused by weakened muscles and decreased strength may be alleviated with exercise. Integrating digital technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), into neck exercise programs may improve their accuracy and effectiveness. This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of an AI-based neck exercise program to measure accuracy and execution time. The method included evaluating the validity and reliability of a real-time AI neck exercise program among 30 healthy participants aged 18-29 years, across five exercises. In the results, the outcome variables included the content validity index (IOC) for exercise accuracy and execution time. Reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and associations between variables were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The content validity assessment indicated high validity of the AI-based neck exercise program, with IOC values between 0.86 and 1.00 across all exercises. Moderate reliability was observed for exercise accuracy (ICC = 0.63) and execution time (ICC = 0.622). Higher exercise accuracy was associated with shorter execution time; however, this relationship should be interpreted with caution, as it does not imply causality.