Pain Flashcards
What is Pain?
Unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage,
What is nociception?
Series of neural and chemical pathways that process pain.
What fibres detect pain?
Free nerve endings of Aδ and C fibres
Where is pain information in Adelta and C fibres carried to?
Dorsal horn of the spinal cord
What tract do pain fibres form when they reach the dorsal horn?
Tract of Lissauer
Where do pain fibres travel in the tract of Lissauer?
Run up for one or two spinal cord segments before grey matter of the dorsal horn is penetrated
What rexed lamina do both Adelta and C fibres send branches to?
Rexed lamina 1 (marginal zone)
What is rexed lamina 1 known as?
Marginal zone
What is rexed lamina II known as?
Substantia gelatinosa
How do Adelta fibres send signals to the marginal zone?
Directly
What are the two pain sensations felt, how are they distinctive?
A fast ‘sharp’ sensation transmitted by faster Aδ fibres and a slow ‘dull’ pain that C fibres carry.
How do C fibres send signals into the marginal zone?
Indirectly, via interneurons in lamina II (substantia gelatinosa)
Where is information from rexed lamina I/II sent?
Second-order projection neurons in laminae IV, V, and VI (nucleus proprius),
What laminae makes up the nucleus proprius?
IV, V, VI
What happens to the second order neurons in the spinal cord?
Decussate immediately and ascend in anterolateral system
Why does lesion of anterolateral pathway nearly always result in contralateral loss of pain/temp/crude touch?
Decussation so early (in spinal cord)
Where may a lesion produce ipsilateral loss of pain and temp?
Tract of Lissauer
What synapses are formed between 1st and 2nd order neurons?
Excitatory sub P/glutamate synapses in the dorsal horn
What tracts make up the anterolateral system?
Spinothalamic, Spinoreticular, Spinomesencephalic
Is there lateral inhibition in pain system?
No, convergent excitation
What is peripheral sensitization?
Reduction in threshold and an amplification in the responsiveness of nociceptors exposed to inflammatory mediators and damaged tissue.
What are types of peripheral sensitization?
Allodynia
Primary hyperalgesia
Spontaneous pain