A client in an acute medicine unit of a hospital with a diagnosis of small bowel obstruction is complaining of intense, diffuse pain in her abdomen. Which of the following physiological phenomena is most likely contributing to her complaint?
A) Nociceptive afferents are conducting the sensation of pain along the cranial and spinal nerve pathways of the ANS.
B) First-order neurons are inappropriately signaling pain to the dorsal root ganglion.
C) The client is experiencing neuropathic pain.
D) The client's C fibers are conducting pain in the absence of damaged A? fibers.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Visceral pain, as characterized by the client's description of her pain, is conducted by way of nociceptive afferents that use the cranial and spinal nerve pathways of the ANS. The problem is not likely rooted in the inappropriate firing of first-order neurons or the substitution of conduction by C fibers. Pain that is attributable to a pathological process apart from the neural pain network is not normally considered to be neuropathic.

A Client in an Acute Medicine Unit of a Hospital