What is a Peripheral Nerve Injury?

As part of Nervember - the campaign from the International Pain Foundation - we are sharing a number of articles, blogs and case studies to highlight nerve pain as a symptom of an injury and nerve conditions which can develop from injuries.

In this article we focus on Peripheral Nerve Injury which is often described as peripheral neuropathy.

The peripheral nerves send messages from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body but can be easily disrupted when damage to the nerve fibres occurs. This generally develops when nerve fibres in the extremities of the body, (the hands, feet or arms) are damaged. You can suffer a range of mild to severe disabling symptoms.

The different types of nerve fibre which can be damaged are:

• Motor Nerves - these control your muscles including those used for holding things, walking, and talking.
• Sensory Nerves - these are the nerves that transmit sensations including pain and touch.
• Autonomic Nerves - these regulate automatic functions including breathing, bladder function, blood pressure and digestion of food.

Symptoms from a peripheral nerve injury can differ depending on which type of nerve fibre has been damaged, or can sometimes include damage to more than one of the different types of nerve fibre.

Peripheral Nerve Injury can be caused by injury to the nerve fibres, from an accident, some medical conditions such as diabetes and some auto immune diseases.