Neuropathic Pain in Brachial Plexus Injury

Tantigate, Direk; Wongtrakul, Saichol; Vathana, Torpon; Limthongthang, Roongsak; Songcharoen, Panupan

doi:10.1142/s0218810415500057

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Allodynia, hypersensitivity and electric-like discharges are present at the border between the normal and affected dermatomes [17,[26][27][28][29], particularly between T 1 and T 2 at the posterior aspect of the elbow [26].The pain severity correlates with the magnitude of the brachial plexus injury [2,3] and to the number of avulsed nerve roots [2-4, 21, 26, 30-33], particularly when the lower roots are affected [24,34,35]. Nevertheless, Bertelli et al [21] found that in isolated C 8 and T 1 nerve root avulsions, there was no pain at all.The pain does not appear immediately after the injury but a few days later [24] and no longer than 3 months after it [5, 6, 24, 26,35,36].The neuropathic pain can be associated with phantom [37] or stump pain [38] in case of upper limb amputation, or to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) [6], inducing a complex pain condition rather difficult to control [19,30,31].Self-mutilation has been described in 5-29% of obstetric brachial plexus injury cases [39,40].The quality of life is seriously impaired with sleep disorders, family troubles, unemployment, chronic depression and social withdrawal [2, 5, 6, 17, 21,[41][42][43][44]. Additionally, the chronic pain is a further hindrance to comply with a good rehabilitation programme, impairing a possible functional recovery [6,45,46].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the chronic pain is a further hindrance to comply with a good rehabilitation programme, impairing a possible functional recovery [6,45,46]. Among all the disabilities induced by the brachial plexus injury, the pain has been found to be the symptom that most negatively affects the quality of life [47].Treatment of this chronic pain can be troublesome, as the response to the different treatment modalities is poor and not all of them allow preservation of the remaining upper limb function [2, 5,48].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…">IncidenceAlthough 50-82.7% of brachial plexus injuries suffer from chronic pain [2,3, 5, 6, 17,35,[49][50][51], it is severe in 41% of them [32]. The incidence and severity are higher in nerve root avulsions [2-4, 7, 21, 30, 33], especially when all the roots are avulsed [2, 17, 21]. Overtime there is a spontaneous progressive improvement, so just after the injury 90% of patients suffer from pain but affects only 30% of them 3 years later [35,36,49].Predisposing factors: the strongest is alcohol abuse [17], but smoking [6, 17], other coexistent pain conditions [6], like psychiatric co-morbidities [6, 17], using a sling [5] and the marital status (both married or divorced versus being single) also increase the pain incidence [5].…”

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Treatment of Neuropathic Pain in Brachial Plexus Injuries

Saiz-Sapena¹,

Vanaclocha‐Vanaclocha²,

Ortiz-Criado³

et al. 2019

Treatment of Brachial Plexus Injuries

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Brachial plexus injuries are commonly followed by chronic pain, mostly with neuropathic characteristics. This is due to peripheral nerve lesions, particularly nerve root avulsions, as well as upper limb amputations, and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). The differential diagnosis between CRPS and neuropathic pain is essential as the treatment is different for each of them. Medical treatments are the first step, but for refractory cases there are two main types of surgical alternatives: ablative techniques and neuromodulation. The first group involves destruction of the posterior horn deafferented neurons and usually provides a better pain control but has a 10% complication rate. The second group provides pain control with function preservation but with limited effectiveness. Each case has to be thoroughly evaluated to apply the treatment modality best suited for it. due to iatrogenia [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], particularly during lymph node biopsy [17, 18] or treatment of some malignancies [19]. The pain is chronic [20], persistent [7], constant [21], burning [22] and throbbing [17], with paroxysmal discharges [3, 6, 23], particularly upon gentle rubbing the affected area [4].The pain is distributed in the distal areas of the upper limb, covering several dermatomes, mostly the caudal ones [24] and particularly the hand [5, 17, 23, 25]. The paroxysmal pain is felt in the arm [26]. Allodynia, hypersensitivity and electric-like discharges are present at the border between the normal and affected dermatomes [17,[26][27][28][29], particularly between T 1 and T 2 at the posterior aspect of the elbow [26].The pain severity correlates with the magnitude of the brachial plexus injury [2,3] and to the number of avulsed nerve roots [2-4, 21, 26, 30-33], particularly when the lower roots are affected [24,34,35]. Nevertheless, Bertelli et al. [21] found that in isolated C 8 and T 1 nerve root avulsions, there was no pain at all.The pain does not appear immediately after the injury but a few days later [24] and no longer than 3 months after it [5, 6, 24, 26,35,36].The neuropathic pain can be associated with phantom [37] or stump pain [38] in case of upper limb amputation, or to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) [6], inducing a complex pain condition rather difficult to control [19,30,31].Self-mutilation has been described in 5-29% of obstetric brachial plexus injury cases [39,40].The quality of life is seriously impaired with sleep disorders, family troubles, unemployment, chronic depression and social withdrawal [2, 5, 6, 17, 21,[41][42][43][44]. Additionally, the chronic pain is a further hindrance to comply with a good rehabilitation programme, impairing a possible functional recovery [6,45,46]. Among all the disabilities induced by the brachial plexus injury, the pain has been found to be the symptom that most negatively affects the quality of life [47].Treatment of this chronic pain can be troublesome, as the response to the different treatment modalities is poor and not all of them allow preservatio...

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Treatment of Neuropathic Pain in Brachial Plexus Injuries

Saiz-Sapena¹,

Vanaclocha‐Vanaclocha²,

Ortiz-Criado³

et al. 2019

Treatment of Brachial Plexus Injuries

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“…Brachial plexus avulsion (BPA) induces intermittent shooting pain and a characteristic persistent oppression, which is usually difficult to cure [6]. The pain could be experienced as a feeling of compression or burning [7]. The mechanisms involved in chronic neuropathic pain include the secretion of inflammatory cytokines, the expression of pain-associated proteins, and the activity of astrocytes [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Administration of Curcumin Alleviates Neuropathic Pain in a Rat Model of Brachial Plexus Avulsion

Xie¹,

Xie²,

Kang³

et al. 2019

Pharmacology

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Background/Aims: Brachial plexus avulsion (BPA) generally causes a chronic persistent pain that lacks efficacious treatment. Curcumin has been found to possess anti-inflammatory abilities. However, little is known about the mechanisms and effects of curcumin in an animal model of BPA. Methods: Mechanical withdrawal thresholds (MWT) were examined by von Frey filaments. Cold allodynia was tested by the acetone spray test. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin (IL)-6 in rat spinal cords were analyzed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the expression levels of c-Fos and nerve growth factor (NGF) were measured by Western blot. The expression level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was observed by immunofluorescence and Western blot. Results: After curcumin treatment, the MWT showed a significant increase when compared to the BPA group on both hind paws. A remarkable decrease of paw-withdrawal response frequency was observed compared with the BPA group. In addition, curcumin treatment significantly decreased the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in rat spinal cords that were exceedingly upregulated in the BPA group. The protein levels of c-Fos and NGF were decreased by treatment with curcumin compared with the corresponding protein levels in the BPA group. Besides, curcumin reduced the number of GFAP positive cells and GFAP expression. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that curcumin significantly extenuates the BPA-induced pain and inflammation by reducing the expression level of proinflammatory cytokines and pain-associated proteins and inhibiting the activity of astrocytes.

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“…Post‐traumatic neuropathic pain can occur from a variety of traumatic aetiologies, commonly trauma during surgery (such as chronic limb pain following amputation, or failed back surgery syndrome), or an accident producing nerve trauma such as brachial plexus avulsion. Incidence of chronic pain in these groups can be as high as 76% in brachial plexus avulsion , 10–40% following lumbar disc surgery and 60% in the form of phantom pain after limb amputation producing a significant burden of disease. In a proportion of these patients, the pain is refractory to pharmacological therapy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%