Author: Glossary

  • Neurexeresis

    The tearing out of a nerve to relieve neuralgia.  

  • Presacral neurectomy

    Surgical procedure for removing the hypogastric (presacral) nerve plexus. This is done to treat conditions such as dysmenorrhea and chronic idiopathic pelvic pain.  

  • Neuraxial infusion

    An invasive approach to the relief of unremitting pain in which analgesic drugs are injected directly into the spinal fluid.  

  • Neural tension tests

    Various assessment techniques that stretch neural tissues (meninges, nerve roots, axons, and peripheral nerves) and assess the mobility and/or length of the structures and their ability to withstand tensile forces. Positive signs may include the reproduction of symptoms, limitation of motion, or asymmetric responses. The tests include the slump test, the straight leg raise, and…

  • Neurally adjusted ventilatory assistance

    A form of mechanical ventilation in which each machine-generated breath initiates after the detection of diaphragmatic muscle depolarization. A lead inserted into the esophagus detects signals from the diaphragm.  

  • Symptomatic neuralgia

    Neuralgia not primarily involving the nerve structure but occurring as a symptom of local or systemic disease.  

  • Stump neuralgia

    Neuralgia due to irritation of nerves at the site of an amputation.  

  • Sphenopalatine neuralgia

    Neuralgia of the sphenopalatine ganglion, causing pain in the area of the upper jawbone and radiating into the neck and shoulders. There is pain on one side of the face radiating to the eyeball, ear, and occipital and mastoid areas of the skull, and sometimes to the nose, upper teeth, and shoulder on the same…

  • Reminiscent neuralgia

    Continued mental perception of pain after neuralgia has ceased.  

  • Occipital neuralgia

    Neuralgia involving the upper cervical nerves, usually caused by nerve entrapment. A type of headache that originates from the upper neck, often radiating toward the back of the head and the scalp on one or both sides. The pain may be chronic or intermittent and may extend all the way up the scalp to the…