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Nocigenic pain
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Nocigenic pain occurs when skin nociceptors, deep tissue nociceptors, or internal organs are irritated. The resulting impulses follow classic anatomical pathways, reaching the higher parts of the nervous system, are reflected by consciousness, and form the sensation of pain. Pain from damage to internal organs is a consequence of rapid contraction, spasm, or stretching of smooth muscles, since smooth muscles themselves are insensitive to heat, cold, or dissection. Pain from internal organs with sympathetic innervation can be felt in certain areas on the body surface (Zakharyin-Ged zones) - this is referred pain. The most well-known examples of such pain are pain in the right shoulder and right side of the neck with gallbladder damage, pain in the lower back with bladder disease, and, finally, pain in the left arm and left half of the chest with heart disease. The neuroanatomical basis of this phenomenon is not entirely clear. A possible explanation is that the segmental innervation of the internal organs is the same as that of distant areas of the body surface, but this does not explain the reason for the reflection of pain from the organ to the body surface. The nocigenic type of pain is therapeutically sensitive to morphine and other narcotic analgesics.