The mechanism of headache has been studied physiologically by the neurosurgeon, whose conclusions have sometimes proved difficult to correlate with known anatomical facts. This is because of the relative paucity of knowledge concerning intracranial sensory nerves and nerve endings so that the interpretation of physiological investigations has depended to some extent on speculation. There are at present two main groups, one which would consider the pain of headache as mediated solely or almost entirely by periarterial nerves and receptors, the other which attributes to nerves within certain special locations of dura the chief role in pain conduction. The present study has approached the problem from two aspects, the first anatomical, special interest being taken in nerve endings in dura, the second clinical, observations on dural sensitivity in man. It has become apparent that both dural vessels and sinuses as well as certain cerebral vessels are pain - sensitive, but in addition that parts of dura itself are sensitive. Furthermore complicated corpuscular nerve endings demonstrated in dura suggest that afferents other than pain fibres leave the dura. These may play a part in reflexes which control vasomotor tone or even play a part in the regulation of intracranial pressure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.123786 |
| Date | January 1949 |
| Creators | Bird, Allan. |
| Contributors | Young, A. (Supervisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science. (Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: NNNNNNNNN, Theses scanned by McGill Library. |
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