As Recommended by 19th and 20th century Doctors! Courtesy of www.DoctorTreatments.com |
|
and please share with your online friends.
Neuralgia.Any part of the body which has sensitive nerves may become afflicted with neuralgia ; the disease is most frequent in those parts of the body which are most abundantly supplied with these nerves. Neuralgia may occur abruptly, but in the greater number of cases is preceded by certain premonitory symptoms. These consist chiefly in a feeling of weight, and a sense of heat or prickling in the part. After a time this sensation gives place to positive pain, which may occur continuously without much intermission, but is usually felt in paroxysms. During the intermission between these paroxysms, the patient is not entirely free from pain, since he suffers a dull, heavy pain all the time; but during the paroxysms the pain becomes sharp and intense. These paroxysms may last for a few seconds only, or for several hours; and the intermissions between them vary in the same degree. The pain usually shoots along the course of some nerve, so that the patient can map out accurately the path of these nerves by the sensations of pain which he experiences. In other cases, pain is felt chiefly at certain limited spots separated some distance from each other, and quite tender upon pressure. This latter point is quite important in determining the nature or neuralgia. When the points of the fingers are first pressed upon these painful spots, the patient often flinches and cries out with pain; but if the pressure be continued for some little time, the pain may cease entirely. This tenderness on pressure is most marked during the paroxysms of pain and may quite disappear in the intervals between. Paroxysms of neuralgic pain may be provoked or increased by sudden or violent movements of those parts of the body in which the pain occurs; the same result follows a cough or a sneeze. There is no fever nor general constitutional disturbance during neuralgia, though sometimes an increased secretion may take place in the mouth or in the eyes, if these parts be afflicted. Neuralgia may last an indefinite time. Sometimes after persisting for months or years, it terminates spontaneously or under treatment, while in other cases the pain continues throughout life, in spite of all means that can be brought to bear upon it. Sometimes the pain can be traced to a definite cause. Thus, the pressure of a tumor on a nerve is found to be the origin of the difficulty. That severe and agonizing form of neuralgia known as anginia pectoris, is often due to the pressure of an enlarged blood vessel-an aneurism. In other cases it is due to malarial influence. In this case the paroxysms may recur with the same regularity as the fever and chills of ague. Neuralgia may also be the result of lead poisoning. An impoverished condition of the blood, often manifested by pallor and emaciation, is a frequent cause of neuralgia. This form of the disease occurs especially among women, particularly those who are afflicted with diseases of the womb. There is still another class of neuralgias which are dependent upon diseases of the brain or spinal cord. In these cases the difficulty is not to be sought in that part of the body which experiences the pain, but in the nerve centers themselves; for it is to be remembered, that a disease of a nerve center-that is a part of the brain or spinal cord-will cause pain in that part of the body to which the nerves running from this center proceed. Thus, a disease of the spinal cord, to be presently described, known as locomotor ataxia, is characterized by spasms of intense pain in the stomach and in the thighs - cases which are doubtless often considered to be neuralgia of the stomach; but in this disease the seat of the difficulty is not in the stomach, nor the thighs, but in the spinal cord. There still remains a considerable number of cases the cause of which is unascertained. These are the obstinate cases which resist all method of treatment. Neuralgia is most frequent between the ages of 20 and 45, and is very rare before the tenth year. Neuralgia affects certain parts of the body, the hip for example, in males more frequently than females, while the latter are more often subject than males to neuralgia in the face and in the chest. Treatment*-Neuralgia is essentially pain, and as such is merely the symptom of a disease. In every case, therefore, treatment is to be preceded by an attempt to ascertain the seat of the difficulty. The promiscuous application of liniments and plasters to all parts of the body for pain is not a rational way of treating the disease. In many cases neuralgia is easily curable. If the patient be living in a malarial district, it is quite probable that the pain is of malarial origin, and that three grains of quinine, administered four times a day, will cure the neuralgia. If the patient be pale and bloodless, and evidently in poor health, tonic medicines are required ; for this purpose the following prescription may be given : Tincture of the chloride of iron, - One ounce. Sulphate of quinine, - One drachm. Syrup of orange peel, - Half an ounce. Water to make four ounces. Mix and take a teaspoonful in water before meals. Such individuals should of course have good food and plenty of air, sunshine and exercise. Neuralgia may be the result of some constitutional taint which has been inherited or acquired. Thus syphilis frequently causes intense pain, particularly in the legs and in the body ; the various minerals, especially lead, may also cause severe neuralgia, as one of the symptoms of poisoning. In all these Gases the treatment consists, in part, in the effort to remove the cause. In every case the treatment must also aim at relieving the pain. For this purpose various measures have been employed, all of them with advantage in certain cases. The tincture of aconite may be rubbed upon the skin every hour (and this simple measure sometimes suffices to relieve the pain), or the following ointment may be used : Veratria, ----- Fifteen grains. Pure lard, ----- One ounce. Mix and apply to the skin. If the pain be severe, relief can be obtained immediately by the inhalation of chloroform ; meanwhile a quarter of a grain of morphine may be given, either dropped dry upon the tongue or dissolved in a little water, or the following combination may be employed : Tincture of gelsemium, Tincture of belladonna, - - Each two ounces. Take fifteen drops every two hours, increasing the dose gradually to thirty drops, if required ; or the following may be found useful: Chloroform, - Four drachms. Muriate of morphia, - Five grains. Ether, ----- Two drachms. Oil of peppermint, - Eight drops. Dilute hydrocyanic acid, - - Two drachms. Tincture of capsicum, - Six drachms. Gum arabic, - . - - Two drachms. Water and molasses, - To make five ounces. Mix and take a teaspoonful every two hours. In some cases of neuralgia, relief has been obtained by the application of blisters along the course of the nerve, and in severe cases a grain of morphine may be applied to the raw surface after the blister is removed. After other remedies have failed, relief can often be obtained by the simple application of cloths wrung out in hot water, or by a hot bath. Electricity, when properly applied, is a valuable agent in many cases of neuralgia, and seems, indeed, sometimes to exercise a curative influence. Nearly all cases of obstinate neuralgia are benefited by the use of iron. In females particularly the following prescription can be employed with advantage : Carbonate of iron, - Forty grains. Sulphate of quinine, - Thirty grains. Extract of belladonna, - - Five grains. Mix and make twenty pills. Take one before eating. Many cases of obstinate neuralgia in the face are relieved by croton chloral hydrate; five grains of the drug may be given in a teaspoonful of syrup, and repeated until five doses have been taken or relief afforded. After this discussion of neuralgia in general, we may dismiss with a few words the special neuralgia affecting particular parts of the body. These may be named as follows * Neuralgia of the face (trifacial). Neuralgia of the neck and head (cervico-occipital). Neuralgia of the neck and arm (cervico-brachial). Neuralgia of the side {intercostal). Neuralgia of the loins [Inmboabdominal). Neuralgia of the groin (crnral). Neuralgia of the thigh (sciatica). In facial neuralgia the pain seems to be located in the large sensitive nerve of the face, which physicians call the fifth or trifacial nerve. The pain may follow particular branches of this nerve, and hence be felt only in certain small parts on one side of the face, or the entire nerve may be involved, and the pain be felt over half of the face from brow to chin. There are certain points which are almost always very tender when pressed upon ; one at the inner side of the eyebrow, and another just below the angle of the eye, near the nose. These are the points where the nerve comes through the bone. There is usually pain in and around the eye, which maybe extremely sensitive to light, unusually red, and produce an increased discharge of tears. Hence this affection may be mistaken for an inflammation of the eye. There may be also increased heat of the nostril on the same side, and an unusual discharge of mucus from the nose. In some cases there occur also spasmodic contractions of the muscles on that side of the face which is affected with pain ; from this feature the disease used to be called ticdouloureux. In most cases the neuralgia is felt on one side of the face only. In every case of facial neuralgia attention should be directed to the teeth. For cases do occur, though not perhaps very frequently, in which the trouble originates in decayed teeth. It is, however, far more frequently the case that a number of teeth are sacrificed and extracted with the hope of relieving the pain. It must not be supposed that simple tenderness of the teeth when pressed upon is sufficient proof that the pain originates in the teeth ; for the fact is, that in every case of facial neuralgia involving the jaw, the teeth are more or less tender upon pressure. If the cause of the pain be actually disease of the tooth, pressure upon this tooth will provoke a paroxysm of pain which will extend over a consid erable part of the face. Facial neuralgia is generally curable ; not necessarily by liniments, but by proper attention to the health of the individual and by the use of tonics, as has been already directed in discussing neuralgia in general. In recent years much success has been attained by the use of croton chloral hydrate, as already mentioned. As a last resort the nerve has been divided, and pieces of it cut out by a surgical operation. These are obstinate cases, in which the seat of the disease appears to be in the brain and not in the face. This operation has been followed by relief from pain for months or even years, although the trouble usually returns ultimately. But first, if you want to come back to this web site again, just add it to your bookmarks or favorites now! Then you'll find it easy! Also, please consider sharing our helpful website with your online friends.
|