title: Post-sympathectomy neuralgia: hypotheses on peripheral and central neuronal mechanisms.
abstract: Post-sympathectomy neuralgia is proposed here to be a complex neuropathic and central deafferentation/reafferentation syndrome dependent on: (a) the transection, during sympathectomy, of paraspinal somatic and visceral afferent axons within the sympathetic trunk; (b) the subsequent cell death of many of the axotomized afferent neurons, resulting in central deafferentation; and (c) the persistent sensitization of spinal nociceptive neurons by painful conditions present prior to sympathectomy. Viscerosomatic convergence, collateral sprouting of afferents, and mechanisms associated with sympathetically maintained pain are all proposed to be important to the development of the syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Legacy / Good Samaritan Hospital, Portland, OR 97209, USA R. S. Dow Neurological Sciences Institute, Portland, OR 97209, USA Western States Chiropractic College, Portland, OR 97209, USA.
authors.forename: Ronald C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Kramis
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Gillette
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000209:etiology*; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013562:Sympathectomy