COMMON COMPLAINTS: NEURALGIA

Neuralgia and sciatica

Neuralgia is probably just another word for pain. Pain is something that you feel. You may have pain because of pressure on a nerve. On the other hand, pains may come from emotional exhaustion or similar disturbances. Experts in nerve surgery say that neuralgia occurs only when there are intermittent pains passing along the nerves of the brain or the spine without any loss of function or evidence of damage to the nerves. As new studies are made the number of neuralgias is constantly diminished, since specific causes are found - such as the slipping of disks between the bones of the spine or pressure on other large nerves where they cross bones. Neuralgia is a symptom and not a disease. Whenever it occurs the most careful investigation needs to be made as to what may be behind the condition.

Trigeminal neuralgia

Dr. Winchell McK. Craig says that there are three major neuralgias. The first is the pain in the face called trigeminal neuralgia; second, the pain in the ear and throat which is known as glossopharyngeal neuralgia because of the nerves involved; and third, the pain over the lower portion of the back of the neck known as occipital neuralgia because it is at the occiput or back of the skull. Other neuralgias are related to nerves elsewhere in the body, such as pains in the arm, called brachial neuralgia, pains in the side of the chest, called intercostal neuralgia, and, of course, also sciatic neuralgia. Among the most serious is trigeminal neuralgia, or neuralgia of the facial nerve, which was given the French name of tic douloureux. In this condition there is severe paroxysmal pain in the various portions of the face to which the nerve from the brain reaches. The pain is sharp and usually lasts less than a minute. The pain can be caused by pressure on the angle of the mouth, the cheek, or a tooth, by eating, drinking, washing, shaving, or even by blowing on the face. Physicians have found that the injection of alcohol into the nerve will stop the pain, and a surgical operation has been developed for cutting the nerve away from the ganglion cell. This operation, which is done by specialists called neurologic surgeons, has now been proved to be successful in many instances. Physicians now have available excellent analgesic drugs to relieve pain. Aspirin may be purchased without a doctor's prescription. Others more potent must be prescribed by the doctor.