the.com/neuralgia
Sharp, stabbing pain along the path of a nerve, felt without any injury to the tissue around it.
means A sharp, often stabbing pain that runs along the path of a nerve, with no underlying tissue damage causing it.
from Built from Greek neuron ('nerve, sinew') plus -algia ('pain'), a suffix also found in nostalgia and myalgia. It's an 18th-century medical coinage, part of a wave of Greek-built terms doctors made to name pain by location rather than by cause — which is fitting, since neuralgia is exactly that: pain whose address is known even when its reason isn't.
- not damage
- nerve fires pain with no injury present
- trigger
- light touch or breeze can set it off
- serious form
- Trigeminal neuralgia is among the most painful conditions known and is treatable
- cause
- often nerve compression, infection, or irritation nearby