OVERVIEW OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN AND ITS OUTPATIENT MANAGEMENT

Patients with neuropathic pain syndrome often express a range of sensory signs and symptoms. The spectrum of these symptoms consists of “painless” to “painless but debilitating” to “painful”. It is characterized by the unusual sensitivity of nociceptive receptors to stimuli (hyperalgesia) with resultant hyperstimulation of the sensory nervous system (allodynia). Stimulation of nociceptor unit receptors, with stimuli-provoked impulse generation that can be spatially and/or temporally summated through its transmission, is likely the causative mechanism of the symptoms patients usually suffer from. It is imperative to reach an exact diagnosis and to explore the pathophysiology of each patient; only when this has been achieved then is it possible to plan adequate symptom-oriented therapeutic strategies. Numerous interventions for neuropathic pain are available, but its treatment remains unsatisfactory. The available treatments mostly have modest efficacy and come with side effects that limit their use whereas some newer therapeutic approaches are preferred for outpatient management. Aim: In this review article, we will discuss an overview of neuropathic pain and its classification and pathophysiology, in addition to the treatment algorithm used for outpatients. Keywords: Neuropathic, pain, trigeminal neuralgia, post-herpetic neuralgia, gabapentin