Articles: neuralgia.
-
Acta neurochirurgica · Jan 1978
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in chronic pain after peripheral nerve injury.
Transcutaneous electrical stimulation was tested in 24 patients with chronic pain following a peripheral nerve injury in an extremity, in 10 patients with a good effect. All of these 10 patients displayed signs of increased sympathetic activity in addition to hyperalgesia. ⋯ Sympathetic block did not relieve the pain in this group. Transcutaneous electrical stimulation should be tried as an alternative to sympathectomy in causalgia major or minor.
-
A study of 21 patients has shown that clonazepam is an effective drug in preventing attacks of pain in trigeminal neuralgia and Sluder's syndrome. It has also been shown that no side effects result from long-term prescription of this drug.
-
15 cases with pain in the shoulder girdle following an operation in supraclavicular brachial plexus anesthesia are reported. The pain developped after an interval of several days. According to the neurological findings the diagnosis is regarded as neuralgic amyotrophy. Possible causes are discussed.
-
Pain in the ear is a common complaint for which patients consult their otolaryngologist. A rare cause is geniculate neuralgia, which has also been called tic douloureux of the nervus intermedius. In its most typical form, it is characterized by severe paroxysmal neuralgic pain centered directly in the ear. ⋯ Afferent sensory facial nerve fibers are shown to pass not only through the nervus intermedius, but also through the main motor trunk of the facial nerve. Excision of the nervus intermedius and/or of the geniculate ganglion by the middle cranial fossa approach without the production of facial paralysis, in any of 15 cases with geniculate neuralgia is reported. Use of these new techniques, sometimes in combination with selective section of the Vth cranial nerve, has been successful in relieving the pain of geniculate neuralgia.
-
A study of the clinical features of causalgia and the central neuronal effects of injuries to peripheral nerves suggests that causalgia is the functional expression of the intensity of the retrograde neuronal reaction in which pools of dorsal horn neurones become converted into foci of abnormal activity. These foci initiate a chain reaction along transmission pathways as far centrally as the cortex, causalgia being the terminal effect of this disorderly activity on the sensorium. This is the basis of the 'turbulance hypothesis' introduced to account for the pain.