IPSILATERAL REFERRAL OF PAIN FOLLOWING CORDOTOMY

We report a patient who developed ipsilateral referred pain following unilateral percutaneous cervical cordotomy (PCC). A right-sided PCC wa s performed on a 44-year-old woman who had been suffering from left gr oin and thigh pain caused by a fibrosarcoma. PCC produced analgesia be low T7 on the left side, and the pain. disappeared. A novel spontaneou s pain with prominent allodynia occurred postoperatively in the right infraclavicular region (C3-C4). Strong pressure on the left groin wher e severe spontaneous pain and tenderness had been before PCC increased the new pain, and an epidural block which produced analgesia below T1 0 relieved the new pain. These facts indicate that the new pain was in duced by afferent inputs from the originally painful region.