Neuralgia

What Is Neuralgia Nerve Pain?

Neuralgia is a common medical term used to describe nerve pain, or pain along the path of a nerve. Neuralgia can cause jabbing, sudden and repetitive pain along the path of a nerve. It can happen to anyone at any age, but it is most common as you get older. There are several major types of types of neuralgia, and each affects a different area.

Postherpetic neuralgia causes pain in the nerve fibers and skin. It is a complication of shingles, a second outbreak of the varicella-zoster virus, which initially causes chickenpox.

Trigeminal neuralgia affects the nerves of the face. It can trigger lightning-like facial pain when you're doing simple, everyday activities like brushing your teeth or putting on makeup. This is the most common type of neuralgia.

Causes of neuralgia

There are a number of causes of neuralgia, but in many instances, the exact cause is not possible to diagnose. But it is known that the following factors may come into play.

• Certain medications
• Physical irritation caused by certain chemicals can be a factor.
• Kidney problems can cause toxins to build in the system, affecting the nerves. Chronic renal insufficiency, or kidney failure, is especially likely to cause neuralgia.
• Diabetes, which is the most common cause of damage to the peripheral nerves.
• Infections, such as shingles, syphilis, and Lyme disease can be factors in nerve pain.

A condition known as porphyria is a common cause of nerve pain. Porphyria is an inherited disorder which causes the body to lose its ability to eliminate certain substances produced after the normal breakdown of blood.

Pressure on nerves by tumors or other structures in the body may trigger nueralgia pain. Swelling, inflammation and irritation are among the other causes of neuralgia, as are acidents, injuries and trauma, including trauma caused by surgery.

Neuralgia symptoms

Neuralgia typically causes the following symptoms.

• Sharp, stabbing or pain that may either be intermittent or constant.
• The affected area may be sensitive to touch. Touch, in fact, may sometimes trigger the pain (as with trigeminal neuralgia, mentioned above).
• Movement near the affected body part may be painful.
• Pain along nerve pathways.
• Pain along the surface of the body, such as with shingles.
• Weakness with reduced or impaired function in the area of the body that's affected.
• Numbness that feels like localized anesthetic, such as you feel from a shot of novocaine.
• Pain occurs in the same location every time it hurts.

Neuralgia treatments

Treating the cause, though often difficult to diagnose, is the best way to give the patient relief from nerve pain. The course of treatment also depends on the location and severity of the discomfort.

Sometimes, surgery can be used to separate the nerve from blood vessels or other structures that are putting pressure on it. In some cases (as mentioned above) the cause might be a tumor.

Controlling the patient's blood sugar can be helpful, since people with diabetes often develop neuralgia.

Treatments using medications may be appropriate. These include anti-depressants, anti-seizure medications, over-the-counter analgesics, or narcotic analgesics like codeine (for short-term relief). Pain relieving drug injections and nerve blocks may be appropriate in some cases, and topical creams containing capsaicin may also provide relief.

Unfortunately, none of these neuralgia treatments can guarantee that the pain will go away. If other treatment options fail, your doctor may suggest a procedure called motor cortex stimulation (MCS). This involves placing an electrode over the sensory cortex of the brain and connecting it to a pulse generator under the skin.

Physical therapy can be used for certain types of nerve pain, especially postherpetic neuralgia.

In some happy cases, neuralgia is temporary and nerve pain simply goes away with time.