Concept and Overview of Neuropathic Pain

Neuropathic pain is defined as pain arising from a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system. It is highly prevalent, afflicting 7–18% of the general population. Its incidences are much higher, ranging from 20% to 77%, in patients with spine disorder, hip and knee osteoarthritis, or cancer. Neuropathic pain can be severely disabling, with significant personal, societal, and economic cost. Patients with neuropathic pain disorders have significantly reduced health-related quality of life and their treatment costs three times that for matched control subjects. There are enormous challenges in understanding and managing neuropathic pain given the diversity of causes, pathology, mechanisms, and clinical presentations of neuropathic pain conditions. Along with these challenges are opportunities for advancing the mechanistic understanding of neuropathic pain and developing promising therapeutic modalities that include new pharmacological agents, emerging stem cell therapy, and novel neuromodulation paradigms.