Neuropathic pain, a clinical challenge
Written by:Pain Unit according to personal experience and cultural and social conditions.
From a strict point of view, neuropathic pain is an injury or neurological dysfunction (central or peripheral nervous system), is a manifestation of a disorder of the nerve fibers but is, in any case, a sensory phenomenon that involves abnormal activity sensory transmission pathways whose development shadows persist and where routine electrophysiological studies can not help. Neuropathic pain is extremely difficult to manage. It is usually chronic and can not respond to treatment with standard analgesics.
The diagnosis of neuropathic pain is difficult even for the clinician, because patients have difficulty expressing suffering symptoms. Thus there are multiple sensory descriptive terms that doctors can associate with such pain: electric shock, tingling, itching, sleeping area, punctures or laces, straps and cut.
Neuropathic pain is associated with many diseases of very different cause; We could establish a classification of related diseases with neuropathic pain based on their location: peripheral nerve (neuropathy acquired, inherited or entrapment), ganglion dorsal root (Herpes Zoster), dorsal horn (avulsion injuries), tracts of the spinal (injuries, tumors, syringomyelia, or cervical disc disease), trunk / bridge (stroke or demyelination), thalamus (stroke, tumoro demyelination) and cortex (stroke or convulsions).
