A New Type of Dermatome —Tracing of Pain and Autonomic Systems

Abstract

The author has made a new dermatome which is applicable to clinical care. Its application to diagnoses and treatmant for pain is described in this paper.

Dermatome is important as an application of pain clinic for diagnosis and treatment.

The old dermatome only shows the distribution of the nerves and thus it is impractical to try to apply it to medical practice. In this study, the author tries to explain the method of making a new dermatome and the relationships between a dermatome, the autonomic nerves and acupuncture points. Dermatome is necessary and indispensable to decide a treatment part and diagnosis of the pain by the pain clinic. In medical practice, the vertebral body(spinal nerve)responsible for the pain can be easily detected if the pain lesion is reflected in the dermatome. In 2011, the International Association for the Study of Pain has introduced the diagnostic algorithm of neuropathic pain, which says : “The range of pain is neuroanatomically plausible and symptoms suggesting somatosensory injury on neurological disease are present.” Pain has become the very confirmation of a dermatome as this shows us.