ANAESTHESIA DOLOROSA

anaesthesia dolorosa: translation

   Also known as painful anaesthesia. Anaesthesia dolorosa is also written as anesthesia dolorosa. Both terms stem from the Greek noun anaisthèsia (numbness) and the Latin adjective dolorosa (of grief, of sorrow). They are used to denote a spontaneously occurring, severe type of pain located in an anaesthetic zone. Facial anaesthesia dolorosa is an uncommon complication of surgical treatments for trigeminal neuralgia. Pathophysiologi-cally, anaesthesia dolorosa tends to be attributed to " deafferentiation. When caused by neurosurgi-cal lesions, the term "central pain is preferred over anaesthesia dolorosa. The issue whether pain can also be experienced in a hallucinated form is a knotty philosophical issue.

   References

   Andy, O.J. (1987). A brainstem "mini-discharge" syndrome (anesthesia dolorosa). Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 22, 132-144.

   Canavero, S., Bonicalzi, V. (2007). Central pain syndrome. Pathophysiology, diagnosis and management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.