title: Neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury: what we know about mechanisms, assessment and management.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In biology, it is easy to understand how a damaged functional system may generate wrong signals, but why this should happen when the system is disconnected is less clear. For this reason, among other pain syndromes, neuropathic pain (NP) following spinal cord injury (SCI) leaves most questions unanswered.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our purpose is to review current knowledge on NP after SCI, focusing on the mechanisms, assessment and management of the syndrome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mechanisms responsible for NP following SCI are poorly understood: NP is classically considered a "central pain syndrome" but recent evidence from experimental models reveals a possible "peripheral sensitization". Assessment of NP following SCI is well-established: in addition to clinical evaluation and self-reported scales, many neurophysiological, radiological and microscopic investigations may be performed. The management of NP following SCI is very difficult: evidence of effective drugs is lacking and alternative new treatment approaches yield different outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recently clinical and instrumental tools have increased our knowledge on NP, suggesting that the discovery of new treatment agents will depend on an explanation of what changes after SCI: future research must point in this direction.
authors: IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e NeuroMotorie, Alma Mater Studiorun, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. rdangelo81@libero.it  
authors: R
authors: R
authors: D'Angelo
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Morreale
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Donadio
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Boriani
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Maraldi
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Plazzi
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Liguori
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception; D017288:Pain Threshold; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome