BLOCKING NEUROPATHIC PAIN [ back to What's New ]
Persons who suffer a TBI may suffer stretch damage to a cervical nerve root, the brachial plexus or other large nerve tracts as a result of the same traumatic event, especially if the trauma involved an object forcibly hitting the person's head so as to flex her neck or knock her to the ground. Nerve pain, known as neuropathic pain, is much worse than muscle pain and harder to treat.  It feels like an electric buzz rather than a dull ache and does not respond to customary pain treatments like Tylenol, Motrin or Vicodin. A recent discovery offers new hope to persons with this type of pain disorder. Researchers working with the venom of a poisonous sea snail, have discovered that it effectively blocks nerve pain by binding directly to receptors which admit the extra calcium into the nerve cell necessary to propagate the pain signal to the brain.  By injecting a small quantity of the snail venom into the spinal cord during a hospital visit, the nerve pain is stopped for a long time.