Referred pain

Radiating pain, referred pain, pseudo-radicular pain, rebound pain

Referred pain, also called 'radiating pain' in Dutch, means the pain is felt in a different location from its source.

The best-known example of referred pain is pain in the left shoulder and left arm with heart problems, or pain in the upper arm when the source of the pain lies in the shoulder.

How does referred pain occur?

The explanation for referred pain lies in how the nerves function. A single common nerve cell receives signals from multiple body structures. A distinction can be made between superficial and deeper structures.

The superficial structure is the skin. Deeper structures include bones, organs, muscles, and ligaments. This nerve cell passes information to the brain. It is sometimes difficult for the brain to distinguish whether pain signals originate from superficial or deeper structures.

The skin has many more nerve endings than deeper structures, causing the brain to assume the pain comes from the skin. As a result, the pain is felt in a different skin area than where the actual source of the pain is located.

Phantom pain

Phantom pain is also a form of radiating pain. The brain misinterprets signals from the body, so pain is still felt in an amputated body part that is no longer there. This occurs because the nerves that, for example, supplied the lower leg also serve other parts of the body. The skin area of the lower leg normally has the most nerve endings, which is why the brain is more likely to assume that the pain originates from this area.

Referred pain, 'gerefereerde pijn', or 'uitstralende pijn'?

The English term referred pain is still used by many specialists. The preference is to use Dutch terms such as gerefereerde pijn or uitstralende pijn. Other terms such as pseudo-radicular pain and weerpijn are also regularly used when these complaints are discussed.

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