NERVOUS PATHWAYS INVOLVED IN PELVIC PAIN

Abstract

In this symposium on the subject of pelvic pain, a review of the basic anatomy and physiology of the nervous pathways of pain in general and of pelvic pain in particular will assist toward a more nearly complete understanding of the various clinical entities which may give rise to this symptom. For a number of years most of the attention given to the subject of pain arising in the pelvic organs has been centered on the autonomic nervous system, which supplies these organs. It is obvious, however, that pain which arises in the pelvis may be somatic or visceral, or both, in origin. In this brief review the anatomy of both avenues of innervation will be considered and mention will be made of some of the concepts of the physiology of pain (see the accompanying illustration¹). SOMATIC INNERVATION The term somatic innervation applies, of course, both to the sensory