Abstract
Pain occurring in patients with spinal cord injury can be classified on clinical grounds into five types: peripheral, central, visceral, mechanical and psychic. An attempt has been made to correlate each type of pain with present neurophysiological knowledge. Mechanisms as to how unpleasant sensations reach the conscious level can be deduced when clinical and neurophysiological data are pooled. Eight case histories are presented which typify each class. The authors' evaluation and treatment offered is presented for each type.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Burke, D C & Woodward, J M (1976). Pain and phantom sensations in spinal paralysis. In Handbook of Clinical Neurology, ed. Vinken, P. J. and Bruyn, G. W., pp. 489–499, North Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam.
Davis, L & Martin, J (1967). Studies upon spinal cord injuries.II. The nature and treatment of pain. J. Neurosurg., 4, 483–491.
Guttmann, Sir L (1976). Spinal Cord Injuries—Comprehensive Management and Research, 2nd ed., pp. 280–294, Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.
Lance, J W & Mcleod, J G (1975). A Physiologic Approach to Clinical Neurology, 2nd ed. pp. 1–10, Butterworths, London.
Melzak, R (1961). The perception of pain. Sci. Am., 204, 41–49.
Pollack, L J, Brown, M, Bosher, B, Finkleman, I, Chow, H, Arieff, A J & Finkle, F R (1951). Pain below the level of injury of the spinal cord. Arch. Neurol. Psychiat. (Chic.), 65, 319–322.
Richardson, R R, Meyer, P R & Cerullo, L J (1980). Neurostimulation in the modulation of intractable paraplegic and traumatic neuroma pains. Pain, 8, 75–84.
Schmidt, R F (1978). Fundamentals of Sensory Physiology, pp. 111–125, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Sweet, W H (1975). Phantom sensations following intraspinal injury. Neurochirurgia, 18, 139–154.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Donovan, W., Dimitrijevic, M., Dahm, L. et al. Neurophysiological approaches to chronic pain following spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 20, 135–146 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1982.27
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1982.27
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Douleurs chroniques et paraplégie
Douleur et Analgésie (1997)
-
The indications and principles of correction of post-traumatic deformities
European Spine Journal (1992)