Spinal cord injury pain - from symptom to pathology

摘要

The estimated number of spinal cord injured people in the member states of the Council of Europe is at least 300,000 people, with about 11,000 new cases per year.Chronic pain in total is very common and is seen in approximately 70-80% of the patients [1-3]. It is one of the major reasons for reduced quality of life, decreased ability to participate in daily activities and for unfitness for work [1, 4-6]. To distinguish neuropathic pains from nociceptive pain states the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) has introduced a mechanism-oriented classification of chronic pains in spinal cord injury [7].