Abstract

Chronic pain may be the consequence of noxious signals from sources extrinsic to the nervous system (e.g., ongoing injury or inflammation). However, chronic pain can also arise spontaneously, without noxious or inflammatory antecedents, as the result of functional and/or structural disturbances within the nervous system, such as peripheral neuropathy. The term neuropathic pain has been applied to this category of chronic pain. Neuropathic pain typically affects the musculoskeletal system, and an important component of the pain is muscle spasm/shortening. Muscle spasm/shortening can cause pain localized to muscle, but sustained spasm/shortening mechanically overloads tendons and their attachments, thereby bringing about pain in these structures. Myofascial pain is a widely used term to denote such pain. Verf.-Referat