Neuropathic pain in maxillofacial osteonecrosis.

Author: Bouquot JE, McMahon RE.

Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Year: 2000

Comment:

Abstract / Excerpt:

Ischemic osteonecrosis (10) is not so much a disease in its own right as it is the natural consequence of a wide variety of systemic and local factors capable of compromising marrow blood flow (Table 1).1,9 It is the condition for which the term cavitation was coined in the orthopedic literature, and it is one of a select group of interrelated diseases able to deterio·rate and hollow out medullary spaces (Fig 1)1.10: First described in 1794 in a case of septic necrosis of the femoral head, this enigmatic disease is as old as the dinosaurs, but it has been poorly understood and has such subtle radiographic changes that until recently it was seldom diagnosed before end-stage damage. 1 ).13 Contemporary research has so enhanced our understanding of its basic pathophysiology that it now bears little resemblance to the entity once known as “aseptic osteomyelitis.”

Citation: Bouquot JE, McMahon RE. Neuropathic pain in maxillofacial osteonecrosis. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 2000; 58(9):1003-20.