nerve damage research

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Nerve Damage Can Be Extensive

THURSDAY, April 1 (HealthDayNews) -- Nerve damage on one side of the

body can also affect the other side of the body.

That's what researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) found.

Their report appears in the May issue of the ls of Neurology.

The researchers found evidence of this previously unknown link between

nerves on opposite sides of the body while doing experiments with rats.

When a major nerve was cut in a rat's paw, there was a significant

decrease in skin nerve endings in the corresponding area of the rat's

opposite paw.

This study may offer important information about the care of people with

nerve damage. The study also raises questions about the common practice

of using tissues on the opposite side of the body as controls during

research.

" Patients with pain syndromes related to nerve damage sometimes report

symptoms on the side opposite their injury as well, but those reports

are usually discounted because there has been no biological framework

for the phenomenon, " principal author Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander,

director of the MGH Nerve Injury Unit, said in a prepared statement.

" Our evidence means that these reports can no longer be ignored and

gives us a new direction for research, " Oaklander said.