抄録
Animal models of neuropathic pain have become employed for basic studies of lumbar radiculopathic pain (sciatica). However, the models do not reproduce sciatica in that the models show cutaneous hyperalgesia while patients with sciatica usually show cutaneous hypalgesia or normal sensation. Neuropathic pain is defined as pain caused by disorders in the nervous system, particularly those in peripheral nerves. Although patients with herpes zoster and CRPS-II manifest cutaneous hyperfunction signs identical to neuropathic pain models among peripheral neuropathies, hyperalgesia and allodynia are rarely observed in exceptionally severe cases of sciatica. Sciatica is definitely neuropathic pain in terms of the pathological classification. However, it cannot be neuropathic pain if the hyperfunction of cutaneous sensation is crucial in the diagnostic criteria of neuropathic pain.
