Anterolateral system

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In the nervous system, the anterolateral system is an ascending pathway that conveys pain, temperature (protopathic sensation), and crude touch from the periphery to the brain. It comprises three main pathways:

Name	Destination	Function
spinothalamic tract (lateral and anterior)	thalamus	important in the localization of painful or thermal stimuli
spinoreticular tract	reticular formation	causes alertness and arousal in response to painful stimuli
spinotectal tract	tectum	orients the eyes and head towards the stimuli

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v • d • e Pain and nociception

Head and neck	Jaw and mouth pain (Odynophagia , temporal arteritis) • Ear pain (otalgia, otitis media, otitis externa) • Eye pain (glaucoma) • Head pain (headache, migraine, tension headache, cluster headache, cerebral aneurysm, sinusitis, meningitis) • Neck pain (atypical myocardial infarction)

Thorax	Back pain (upper back pain, lower back pain, spinal disc herniation, degenerative disc disease, coccydynia) • Breast pain (perimenstrual, breast cancer) • Chest pain (myocardial infarction, gastroesophageal reflux disease, pancreatitis, hiatus hernia, aortic dissection, asymptomatic pulmonary embolism, Tietze's syndrome) • Shoulder pain (right side - cholecystitis)

Abdominal pain	Left and right upper quadrant (peptic ulcer disease, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis, atypical myocardial infarction, abdominal aortic aneurysm, asymptomatic gastric cancer) • Left and right lower quadrant (appendicitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, ectopic pregnancy, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, diverticulitis, urolithiasis, pyelonephritis, colorectal cancer)

Limbs	Arms (myocardial infarction, left arm) • Legs (deep vein thrombosis, peripheral artery occlusive disease, claudication, spinal disc herniation, sciatica)

Joints	Small joints (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosis, gout, pseudogout • Large joints (septic arthritis, hemarthrosis, osteonecrosis) • Back joints (ankylosing spondylitis, inflammatory bowel disease) • Other (psoriatic arthritis, Reiter's syndrome)

Musculoskeletal	Delayed onset muscle soreness, Myalgia, Physical trauma

Other/unspecified pain	Allodynia, breakthrough pain, chronic pain, congenital insensitivity to pain, congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, hyperalgesia, hyperpathia, neuralgia, pain asymbolia, pain disorder, paroxysmal extreme pain disorder, phantom pain, referred pain

Related concepts	Anterolateral system, gate control theory of pain, pain management (anesthesia, cordotomy), pain scale, pain threshold, posteromarginal nucleus, substance P

Categories: Pain | Nociception | Sensory system | Central nervous system pathways

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