Referred Pain - Use in Clinical Diagnosis and Treatments

Use in Clinical Diagnosis and Treatments

Referred pain can be indicative of nerve damage. A case study done on a 63 year old man with a sustained injury during his childhood developed referred pain symptoms after his face or back was touched. After even a light touch, there was shooting pain in his arm. The study concluded that the reason for this man's pain was possibly due to a neural reorganization which sensitized regions of his face and back after the nerve damage occurred. It is mentioned that this case is very similar to what phantom limb syndrome patients suffer. This conclusion was based on experimental evidence gathered by V. Ramachandran in 1993, with the difference being that the arm that is in pain is still attached to the body.