Cannabidiol as a resolutive therapy for chronic neuropathic multi-refractory pain in an orthopedic patient

Abstract

Introduction: Cannabis derivatives have been increasingly highlighted in analgesic therapies, due to their agonist action on the endocannabinoid system receptors. Fostering the still scarce literature on the subject, we report the case of a 45-year-old female patient - deprived of walking due to chronic neuropathic pain in the right leg, associated with ipsilateral lumbosacral discogenic radiculopathy - who underwent two hemilanectomies, decompressive fasciotomy in the right leg, eighteen ganglionic blocks, intrathecal punctures with glucose, local applications of botulinum toxin, ozone therapy, adjuvant physiotherapy, and drug therapy with twenty- -eight medications tested, with diverse analgesic pharmacodynamics; in 20 months of treatment. Instigatingly, it proved highly responsive to phytocannabinoid treatment, maintaining it in monotherapy, without pain. The cannabidiol extract - besides proving to be the only truly resolutive therapy for chronic pain - had an anxiolytic action and also brought a sensation of cognitive improvement and of symptoms of concomitant pathologies.