Abstract
Traumata of the limbs which are accompanied by peripheral nerve lesions are commonly followed by painful peripheral states and trophic changes of the tissues [34,35,47]. These painful states are difficult to treat and sometimes even resistant to therapy. The neuronal mechanisms involved in the production and maintenance of the pathological pain states and trophic changes are unknown. They might comprise peripheral and central components: The peripheral component is produced by the complete or partial interruption of the continuity between target tissue (receptive structures of afferent fibers, autonomic effector organs) on one side and afferent and sympathetic efferent (postganglionic) fibers on the other side. This interruption may result in abnormal discharge patterns in the afferent and efferent neurones and in a change of retro- und anterograde axoplasmic flow. The central component being induced by this interruption is documented in dramatic changes of the peptide content of the substantia gelatinosa in the dorsal horn (such as depletion of endogenous phosphatase [31] and of substance P [30]), in changes of the receptive fields of dorsal horn neurones [11,12], and in a decline of primary afferent depolarization [50]. The present paper discusses results of our neurophysiological investigations of afferent and sympathetic efferent (postganglionic) fibers in a skin nerve (superficial peroneal nerve) of cat hind limbs which had been cut and ligated 6–245 days before the experiments so that neuromata had developed. These experimentally produced neuromata might be a pathophysiological model [51] for pain-producing neuromata occurring in humans after nerve trauma.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aitken JT (1949) The effect of peripheral connexions on the maturation of regenerating nerve fibres. J Anat 83: 32–43
Arvanitaki A (1942) Effects evoked in an axon by the activity of a contiguous one. J Neurophysiol 5: 89–108
Blumberg H, Jänig W (to be published) Activation of fibers via experimentally produced stump neuromata of skin nerves: Ephaptic transmission or retrograde sprouting?
Blumberg H, Jänig W, Rieckmann C, Szulczyk P (1980) Baroreceptor and chemoreceptor reflexes in postganglionic neurones supplying skeletal muscle and hairy skin. J Autonomic Nerv Syst 2: 223–240
Bradley WG, Jenkison M (1973) Abnormalities of peripheral nerves in murine muscular dystrophy. J Neurol Sei 18: 227–247
Cajal SR y (1959) Degeneration and regeneration of the nervous system. Hafner, New York
Cragg GB, Thomas PK (1961) Changes in conduction velocity and fiber size proximal to peripheral nerve lesions. J Physiol (Lond) 157: 315–327
Davis LA, Gordon T, Hoffer JA, Jhamandas J, Stein RB (1978) Compound action potentials recorded from mammalian nerves following ligation or resuturing. J Physiol (Lond) 285: 543–559
Devor M, Bernstein JJ (1981) Abnormal impulse generation in neuromas: Electrophysiology and ultrastructure. In: Ochoa J, Culp B (eds) Abnormal nerves and muscles as impulse generators. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Devor M, Jänig W (1981) Activation of myelinated afferents ending in a neuroma by stimulation of the sympathetic supply in the rat. Neurosci Lett 24: 43–47
Devor M, Wall PD (1978) Reorganization of spinal cord sensory map after peripheral nerve injury. Nature 275: 75–76
Devor M, Wall PD (to be published) The effect of peripheral nerve injury on receptive fields of cells in the cat spinal cord. J Comp Neurol
Doupe J, Cullen CH, Chance GQ (1944) Post-traumatic pain and the causalgic syndrome. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 7: 33–48
Friede RL, Bischhausen R (1980) The fine structure of stumps of transected nerve fibers in subserial sections. J Neurol Sci 44: 181–203
Govrin-Lippmann R, Devor M (1978) Ongoing activity in severed nerves: Source and variation with time. Brain Res 159: 406–410
Gregor M, Jänig W (1977) Effects of systemic hypoxia and hypercapnia on cutaneous and muscle vasoconstrictor neurones to the cat’s hind limb. Pfluegers Arch 368: 71–81
Gregor M, Jänig W, Riedel W (1976) Response pattern of cutaneous postganglionic neurones to the hind limb on spinal cord heating and cooling in the cat. Pfluegers Arch 363: 135–140
Gregor M, Jänig W, Wiprich L (1977) Cardiac and respiratory rhythmicities in cutaneous and muscle vasoconstrictor neurones to the cat’s hind limb. Pfluegers Arch 370: 299–302
Grosse M, Jänig W (1976) Vasoconstrictor and pilomotor fibers in skin nerves to the cat’s tail. Pfluegers Arch 361: 221–229
Horeyseck G, Jänig W (1974) Reflexes in postganglionic fibers within skin and muscle nerves after noxious stimulation of skin. Exp Brain Res 20: 125–134
Horeyseck G, Jänig W, Kirchner F, Thämer V (1976) Activation and inhibition of muscle and cutaneous postganglionic neurones to hind limb during hypothalamically induced vasoconstriction and atropine-sensitive vasodilation. Pfluegers Arch 361: 231–240
Huizar P, Kuno M, Miyata Y (1975) Electrophysiological properties of spinal motoneurones of normal and dystrophic mice. J Physiol (Lond) 248: 231–246
Jänig W (1975) Central organization of somatosympathetic reflexes in vasoconstrictor neurones. Brain Res 87: 305–312
Jänig W (1979) Reciprocal reaction patterns of sympathetic subsystems with respect to various afferent inputs. In: Brooks CMcC, Koizumi K, Sato A (eds) Integrative functions of the autonomic nervous system. University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo; Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, pp 263–274
Jänig W (to be published) Sympathisches Nervensystem und Schmerz. Verh Dtsch Ges Inn Med 86
Jänig W (to be published) Reactions of sympathetic neurones to noxious stimulation of skin: New experiments and perspectives. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Jänig W, Kümmel H (1977) Functional discrimination of postganglionic neurones to the cat’s hind paw with respect to the skin potentials recorded from the hairless skin. Pfluegers Arch 371: 217–225
Jänig W, Kümmel H (to be published) Organization of the sympathetic innervation supplying the hairless skin of the cat’s paw. J Autonomic Nerv Syst
Jänig W, Szulczyk P (to be published) Organization of lumbar preganglionic neurones. J Autonomic Nerv Syst
Jessel T, Tsunoo A, Kanazawa I, Otsuka M (1979) Substance P depletion in the dorsal horn of rat spinal cord after section of the peripheral processes of primary sensory neurones. Brain Res 168: 247–259
Knyihar E, Csillik B (1976) Effects of peripheral axotomy on the fine structure and histochemistry of the Rolando substance degeneration: Atrophy of central processes of pseudounipolar cells. Exp Brain Res 26: 73–87
Korenman EMD, Devor M (to be published) Ectopic adrenergic sensitivity in damaged peripheral nerve axons in the rat. Exptl Neurol
Leriche R (1949) La Chirurgie de la douleur, 3rd edn. Masson Paris
Livingston WK (1976) Pain mechanisms. Plenum, New York
Loh L, Nathan PW (1978) Painful peripheral states and sympathetic blocks. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 41: 664–671
Matthews MR, Nelson VH (1975) Detachment of structurally intact nerve endings from chromatolytic neurones from the rat superior cervical ganglion during depression of synaptic transmission induced by postganglionic axotomy. J Physiol (Lond) 245: 91–135
Mellander S, Johansson B (1968) Control of resistance, exchange and capacitance functions in the peripheral circulation. Pharmacol Rev 20: 117–196
Nathan PW (1947) On the pathogenesis of causalgia in peripheral nerve injuries. Brain 70: 145–171
Nathan PW (1980) Involvement of the sympathetic nervous system in pain. In: Kosterlitz HW, Terenius LY (eds) Pain and Society. Verlag Chemie, Weinheim Deerfield Beach, Florida Basel pp 311–324
Noordenbos W (1959) Pain. Elsevier, Amsterdam London New York Princeton
Purves D (1976) Long-term regulation in the vertebrate peripheral nervous system. Int Rev Physiol 10: 125–177
Purves D, Lichtman JW (1978) Formation and maintenance of synaptic connections in autonomic ganglia. Physiol Rev 58: 821–862
Rasminsky M (1978) Ectopic generation of impulses and cross-talk in spinal nerve roots of “dystrophic” mice. Ann Neurol 3: 351–357
Rasminsky M (1980) Ephaptic transmission between single nerve fibers in the spinal nerve roots of dystrophic mice. J Physiol (Lond) 305: 151–169
Schliack H, Schiffter R (1976) Klinik der sogenannten vegetativen Schmerzen. In: Sturm A, Birkmayer W (eds) Klinische Pathologie des vegetativen Nervensystems, vol 1. Fischer, Stuttgart New York, pp 488–537
Seltzer Z, Devor M (1979) Ephaptic transmission in chronically damaged peripheral nerves. Neurology (Minneap) 29: 1061–1064
Sunderland S (1976) Pain mechanisms in causalgia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 39: 471–480
Sunderland S (1978) Nerves and nerve injuries, 2nd edn. Livingstone, Edinburgh London New York
Thorban W (1977) Das Sudecksche Syndrom. In: Sturm A, Birkmayer W (eds) Klinische Pathologie des vegetativen Nervensystems, vol 2. Fischer, Stuttgart New York, pp 1186–1206
Wall, PD, Devor M (1981) The effect of peripheral nerve injury on dorsal root potentials and on transmission of afferent signals into the spinal cord. Brain Res 209, 95–111
Wall PD, Gutnick M (1974) Ongoing activity in peripheral nerves: The physiology and pharmacology of impulses originating from a neuroma. Exp Neurol 43: 580–593
Wall PD, Devor M, Inbal R, Scadding JW, Schonfeld D, Seltzer Z, Tomkiewicz MM (1979) Autotomy following peripheral nerve lesions: Experimental anaesthesia dolorosa. Pain 7: 103–113
Wall PD, Scadding JW, Tomkiewicz MM (1979) The production and prevention of experimental anaesthesia dolorosa. Pain 6: 175–182
White JC (1974) Sympathectomy for relief of pain. Adv Neurol 4: 629–638
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1981 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Blumberg, H., Jänig, W. (1981). Neurophysiological Analysis of Efferent Sympathetic and Afferent Fibers in Skin Nerves with Experimentally Produced Neuromata. In: Siegfried, J., Zimmermann, M. (eds) Phantom and Stump Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68264-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68264-3_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-11041-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-68264-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive