Interventional Pain Procedures (IPPs) is a relatively new treatment modality for chronic pain in Malaysia. The Interventional Pain Service (IPS) newly set up in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Department of Surgery,

Division of Neurosurgery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is led by a pain neurosurgeon and provides a whole package of multimodal pain management including a different range of IPPs. This clinical audit is to examine the quality of IPPs performed within the IPS in our institution since its initiation. A total of 87 IPPs were performed on 56 chronic pain patients over a 3-year duration. As high as 81.8% of the procedures were effective and 81.5% of patients were satisfied. Only one minor transient complication occurred after an intradiscal procedure but none resulted in death or permanent disability. Thus, safe and effective IPPs can be provided as part of IPS in a local neurosurgical pain center to bring more comprehensive and less fragmented care for chronic pain patients ¹⁾.

A study reviewed the epidemiology of brain and spinal tumours in Sarawak from January 2009 till December 2012. The crude incidence of brain tumour in Sarawak was 4.6 per 100,000 population/year with cumulative rate 0.5%. Meningioma was the most common brain tumour (32.3%) and followed by astrocytoma (19.4%). Only brain metastases showed a rising trend and cases were doubled in 4 years. This accounted for 15.4% and lung carcinoma was the commonest primary. Others tumour load were consistent. Primitive neuroectodermal tumour (PNET) and astrocytoma were common in paediatrics (60%). We encountered more primary spinal tumour rather than spinal metastases. Intradural schwannoma was the commonest and frequently located at thoracic level. The current healthcare system in Sarawak enables a more consolidate data collection to reflect accurate brain tumours incidence. This advantage allows subsequent future survival outcome research and benchmarking for healthcare resource planning ²⁾.