• José Cláudio Marinho Nóbrega, Silvia Regina Dowgan Tesseroli de Siqueira, SiqueiraJosé Tadeu Tesseroli deJT, and Manoel Jacobsen Teixeira.
• Neurological Division, Hospital das Clínicas, Medical School, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
• Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2007 Jun 1; 65 (2A): 256-61.

ObjectiveTo evaluate a sample of patients with atypical facial pain (AFP) in comparison to patients with symptomatic facial pain (SFP).Method41 patients with previous diagnostic of AFP were submitted to a standardized evaluation protocol, by a multidisciplinary pain team.Results21 (51.2%) were considered AFP and 20 (48.8%) (SFP) received the following diagnosis: 8 (40.0%) had temporomandibular disorders (TMD); 3 (15.0%) had TMD associated to systemic disease (fibromyalgia, systemic erythematosus lupus); 4 (20.0%) had neuropathy after ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery for petroclival tumor; 2 (10.0%) had Wallenberg syndrome; 1 (5.0%) had intracranial tumor; 1 (5.0%) had oral cancer (epidermoid carcinoma), and 1 (5.0%) had burning mouth syndrome (BMS) associated to fibromyalgia. Spontaneous descriptors of pain were not different between AFP and SFP groups (p=0.82). Allodynia was frequent in SFP (p=0.05) and emotion was the triggering factor most prevalent in AFP (p=0.06). AFP patients had more traumatic events previously to pain (p=0.001).ConclusionAFP patients had more: a) traumatic events previously to pain onset, and b) emotions as a triggering factor for pain. These data support the need of trained health professionals in multidisciplinary groups for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of these patients.

22 keywords...

hide…