Pharmacological management of pain in digital ulcers of systemic sclerosis: A PRISMA-driven systematic review.

ABSTRACT: Digital ulcers represent a severe manifestation of digital vasculopathy in systemic sclerosis, occasionally with the contribution of microtrauma and calcinosis. These ulcers are often challenging to heal and extremely painful. Regarding analgesic approaches, there is a lack of consensus on best practices, leading to physician experience-guided approaches rather than standardized protocols. To assess the published evidence on the effectiveness of oral and topical analgesics and local anaesthetics for pain reduction in digital ulcer of systemic sclerosis, we conducted a PRISMA-driven systematic review. A search in PubMed and Cochrane databases was performed using the keyword search terms 'digital ulcers', 'finger ulcers', 'systemic sclerosis', 'scleroderma', 'pain management', 'analgesics',

SUBMITTER: Almeida I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12289615 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature