Palliative care physicians proposed to add topical analgesics into the WHO stepladder in the treatment of cancer-related pain to have more treatment possibilities without side effects. The WHO stepladder for pain consists of 3 steps:  Non-opioid with or without adjuvants Adding weak opioid Adding strong opioid The authors propose to…

In March 2020 a milestone paper related to the peripheral pathogenesis of sciatic pain has been published by us, in collaboration with a Canadian pain specialist. Increasingly we and colleagues all over the world finder phenytoin cream quite remarbable, sometimes even in indications one would not expect phenytoin cream to…

TI presents first double-blind data supporting phenytoin 10% cream in painful polyneuropathies at FIGON Dutch Medicines Days Every year FIGON (Federatie Innovatie Geneesmiddel Onderzoek Nederland: Dutch Federation Innovative Medicine Research) is organizing a 2-day conference. On the 23rd of September 2019 at  the FIGON Dutch Medicines Days David Kopsky on…

Topical Innovation’s strategy supported: focus on broad-acting sodium channel blocker has higher likelihood of success Nature’s review of April 8, 2019 is a further supportive piece of evidence for Topical Innovation’s strategy of developing a broad-acting sodium channel blocker as a topical treatment for neuropathic pain. Author Kingwell points out…

Phenytoin and Phenytoin cream should be considered in case of chronic incapacitating fibromyalgia We received the following letter, which stresses the importance of considering phenytoin in chronic pain: I am a 63 year old female who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia more than 30 years ago. I was suffering massive muscle…

New Paradigm makes use of placebo controlled tests in daily practice: an innovation The physicians of topical innovations have developed at their center in the Netherlands, patients a new placebo controlled test paradigm. In order to identify putative responders and exclude an (initial) placebo-response, first a single-blind and subsequently a…

Topical Treatment of painful chemotherapy-induced neuropathy: new evidence Julien Rossignol et al. (2019) from Inserm and University Paris Descartes, Paris, France published a paper on the effects of high dose topical amitriptyline in painful chemotherapy-induced neuropathy: 10%. We advocated such high dose already years ago based on our clinical data….

In the Dutch Pain Journal, “Nederlandstalig Tijdschrift Pijnbestrijding” we recently published an article about topical analgesia for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Read the whole artilce here.

English abstract

Old co-analgesics such as amitriptyline, ketamine and phenytoin are worth of being re-evaluated in compounded creams for the treatment of peripheral neuropathic pain. We call that process repositioning or repurposing. Read More…

Patient suffering from PDN discusses his experience after application of 10% phenytoin cream We have presented many patients in our recent papers, but it is always good to hear the story from the patient’s mouth. Here we hear the story of a 56-year old man, suffering from diabetes type II…

Phentytoin cream finds its way into state of the art review In the authorative Journal ‘Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy’, Prof. Terence J. Coderre wrote an impressive overview on topical drug therapy for neuropathic pain. Dr. Coderre is a Harold Griffith Professor in Anesthesia Research at McGill University. He is also…

Phenytoin Topical Project ready to enter phase III after meeting with the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board In June 2018, a so called Tailored Advice Procedure at the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board was initiated regarded the next developments steps of topical phenytoin cream. The aim of such development is to obtain…

Nociceptors in neuropathic pain and Nav1.7 channels: new insights Pseudo-unipolar neurons of the dorsal root ganglion have one axon that is divided into two separate branches, one leads impulses from the periphery to the cell body in the ganglion, and one carrying impulses from the body to the spinal cord. These…

Topical Analgesia Information welcomed at 3rd Eastern-European Pain Congress: 7−9 June 2018, Kiev, Ukraine The topic ‘topical analgesics’ was hot during the at 3rd Eastern-European Pain Congress 2018, in Kiev, Ukraine. On 2 days (7th and 8th June) topics related to topical analgesia were presented, amongst others by Dr Roberto…

9th International Conference on Clinical & Medical Case Reports: Keynote speech on n-of-1 case collections based on phenytoin cream in painful neuropathy At the 9th International Conference on Clinical & Medical Case Reports September 27-28, 2018 at Amsterdam, the Netherlands the focus is: Role of Clinical & Medical Case Reports…

Phenytoin: a new cytoprotective mechanism An impressive group of scientists from Germany, Spain, USA and France worked on discovering a new cellular mechanism of phenytoin, a mechanism leading to cellular protection [1]. They published the results in March 2018. We have described phenytoin’s protective mechanism on the level of nerve…

Phenytoin reverses chemotherapeutic hair and skin damage Chemotherapy against cancer does not only lead to neuropathy and neuropathic pain, it also leads to hair loss:chemotherapy-induced alopecia (CIA). Recent animal models of CIA have been used to document the changes in the morphology of hair follicles after chemotherapy. These models can…

New drugs for Neuropathic Pain badly needed! In Pain Medicine News of 2017 an analysis is presented of many recent meta-analysis and studies to evaluate our current painkillers in neuropathic pain. The result is actually shocking, as we need to conclude that in this field not much progress exists, and…

Topical analgesia better than oral analgesia Professor Cruccu and colleagues studied the efficacy of a topical analgesic formulation of capsaicin and compared its effect with the oral intake of pregabalin (150–600 mg/day administered in two or three doses). They focused on the effects of both analgesic strategies on allodynia, a…

Chronic pain in the elderly leads to memory decline Chronic pain is associated with accelerated memory decline and development of dementia in the elderly patients. According new findings, published in the last quarter of 2017, elderly patients suffering from chronic pain experienced an accelerated decline in functional independence. Elizabeth L….

No relevant changes in the neuropathic pain treatment landscape In the 2017 Review of the Canadian Pain Society, the consensus statement regarded the therapy of neuropathic pain we can see how disappointing the progress in this field is. Nothing new, only slight shifts in recommendations. Although many pharmacological treatment modalities…

Topical phenytoin gains momentum In a recent overview, published in the Pubmed indexed peer reviewed journal ‘Pain Management’ of November 2017: ‘Management of chronic neuropathic pain with single and compounded topical analgesics’ a number of references to the work of Topical Innovations on phenytoin cream can be found. In the introduction of…

New analgesic formulation of phenytoin acts via the skin Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 07-11-2017. Topical Innovations BV introduced today a new important paradigm to treat localized neuropathic pain (LNP). LNP is the most common presentation of neuropathic pain, affecting about 60% of all patients suffering from neuropathic pain. The war against…

It is time for Topiceuticals to fight the opioid overdose epidemic! The USA organization Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created a nationwide campaign featuring real-life accounts of people recovering from opioid misuse or opioid disorder. They also let people talk who have lost family members to prescription opioid…

Phenytoin inhibits inflammation in the skin In dermatological conditions, topical phenytoin has been evaluated in the treatment of ulcers, epidermolysis bullosa, and in other inflammatory conditions of the skin. Topical phenytoin (2% to 5% in cream) was effective in treating the ulcers of epidermolysis bullosa simplex, and has also been…

Topical Analgesics in Real Life: results The results of a new study on topical analgesics ‘Optimizing Patient Experience and Response to Topical Analgesics (OPERA) Study’ was published in the Journal of Pain Research in October 2017. The results indicate that topical treatments may provide an effective and safer treatment alternative…