British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2003, Vol. 91, No. 2 302
© 2003 The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia
Correspondence |
Efficacy of intravenous magnesium in neuropathic pain
1 Wigan, UK 2 London, UK
Editor—I enjoyed reading Brill and colleagues’ placebo-controlled cross-over trial investigating the efficacy of i.v. magnesium in neuropathic pain.1 In the discussion, they make reference to a paper where ‘an oral daily dose of magnesium sulphate was shown to be effective in neuropathic pain’.2 However, I have read this paper thoroughly and can find no reference to any use of oral magnesium. I was wondering if a typographic error had taken place, and that the authors might be able to direct me to the paper that does give an account of the use of oral magnesium.
V. Jaitly
Wigan, UK
Editor—Thank you for the opportunity to reply to Dr Jaitly. In our manuscript, we have erroneously stated that Crosby and colleagues2 have used oral magnesium in patients with cancer. Therefore, we agree with Dr Jaitly’s comment, although it is not of major consequence for the discussion of our results. More recently, Cohen3 published an informal survey on 13 patients suffering from erythromelalgia, using different oral products containing magnesium, which produced a very good improvement in eight out of the 13 patients.
P. P. di Vadi
London, UK
References
1 Brill S, Sedgwick PM, Hamann W, di Vadi PP. Efficacy of intravenous magnesium in neuropathic pain, Br J Anaesth 2002; 89: 711–4
2 Crosby V, Wilcock A, Corcoran R. The safety and efficacy of a single dose (500 mg or 1 g) of intravenous magnesium sulfate in neuropathic pain poorly responsive to strong opioid analgesics in patients with cancer. J Pain Symptom Manage 2000; 19: 35–9[Medline]
3 Cohen JS. High-dose oral magnesium treatment of chronic, intractable erytromelalgia. Ann Pharmacother 2002; 36: 255–60[Abstract]
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