Doctors treat nerve damage with a combination of medications (pain relievers, anti-seizure drugs, antidepressants), physical therapy, lifestyle changes, and sometimes surgery (nerve grafts, transfers, or decompression) for more severe cases, aiming to manage pain, restore function, and address the underlying cause, which can range from mild injuries that heal to severe damage requiring intervention.
A surgeon can remove the damaged section and directly reconnect healthy nerve ends. This is known as nerve repair. Or the surgeon may implant a piece of nerve from another part of the body to close a gap between the nerves. This is known as a nerve graft.
If your nerve is only injured, you may recover over time without surgery. Nerves heal slowly, sometimes over many months. For these mild nerve injuries, nonsurgical treatment options include medication, physical therapy or massage therapy. Peripheral nerve surgery can reconstruct or repair damaged nerves.
Causes of neuropathic pain in children include nerve injury, nerve entrapment or external compression by space-occupying lesion (abscess); nerve damage caused by HIV infection or by the toxic effects of antiretroviral therapy (ART); benign tumours of the nerve (neurofibroma or scar neuroma after trauma or surgery); ...
Autonomic neuropathy can also cause erectile dysfunction (ED) when it affects the nerves that control erection with sexual arousal. However, sexual desire does not usually decrease. Diarrhea can occur when the nerves that control the small intestine are damaged. The diarrhea occurs most often at night.
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy might include: Gradual onset of numbness, prickling, or tingling in your feet or hands. These sensations can spread upward into your legs and arms. Sharp, jabbing, throbbing or burning pain.
The muscles and nerves around your rectum and anus need to work together for your bowels to work correctly. Nerves control the muscles of the rectum. They signal when the rectum is full. Damage to these nerves can interfere with bowel control.
Conditions that can cause nerve pain include:
People with neuropathic pain might need a combination of different treatments, including medication, physical therapy, psychological counseling and surgery.
When a nerve root in the spinal cord becomes pinched, it is referred to as radiculopathy. This affects the spinal vertebrae, tendons, and intervertebral discs. Radiculopathy is often mistaken for neuropathy because both conditions cause similar symptoms, such as pain, weakness, numbness, and tingling.
A neurologist is a medical doctor who specializes in diseases and conditions affecting your brain, spinal cord and nerves.
Researchers demonstrate that transferring healthy mitochondria from support glial cells to nerve cells could reduce nerve pain and degeneration. Fluorescence microscopy images show satellite glial cells transferring mitochondria (red) to neurons through nanotubes that connect the two cells.
lidocaine 5% patch. Lidocaine 5% patch (Lidoderm) is a prescription medication used to relieve nerve pain caused by a shingles infection, also called postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). It's a local anesthetic that works by numbing your nerves to help reduce pain.
EMG and nerve conduction studies are used to help check for many kinds of muscle and nerve disorders. An EMG test helps find out if muscles are responding the right way to nerve signals. Nerve conduction studies help to check for nerve damage or disease.
Nerve blocks, or neural blockades, are procedures that can help prevent or manage many different types of pain. They are often injections of medicines that block pain from specific nerves. They can be used for pain relief as well as total loss of feeling if needed for surgery.
At the first visit, your doctor will get to know your condition and prescribe treatment. Communicating with a neurologist will help you understand the problem faster. You will undergo a neurological and physical examination. This data will help to clarify your condition and prescribe treatment.
Nerves may be squeezed or pinched by surrounding tissues, which increases pressure on the nerve and may disrupt function. This can lead to muscle weakness, a burning or tingling sensation, numbness or pain.
Diazepam injection is also used to treat seizures, including status epilepticus. It may also be used to help relax muscle or relieve muscle spasms. Diazepam injection is a benzodiazepine.
Depending on where in the body the nerve injury has occurred, multiple surgeons could be involved in planning and performing a nerve repair. Specialists may include a neurosurgeon, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, an orthopaedic surgeon and others.
To stop nerve pain immediately, topical lidocaine or capsaicin creams/patches can provide quick numbing relief, while prescription options like anti-seizure drugs (gabapentin) or strong painkillers (tramadol) offer faster but not always instant relief; gentle stretches, TENS, and relaxation techniques can also help manage acute flare-ups by blocking pain signals or relaxing muscles.
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (pronounced Ghee-yan Bah-ray) is a rare neurological disorder in which a person's immune system mistakenly attacks part of their peripheral nervous system—the network of nerves that carries signals from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.
Neuropathy is a general term for any damage or dysfunction of the nervous system due to injury or disease. This can cause a variety of symptoms, including pain, tingling, and numbness in the hands and feet. Neuropathic pain, on the other hand, refers specifically to pain or pain conditions caused by neuropathy.
Loss of Bladder or Bowel Control in Extreme Cases
In the most critical scenarios, severe nerve compression at L4-L5 risks loss of bladder or bowel control — a medical emergency. This alarming sign, known as cauda equina syndrome, needs immediate treatment to avoid permanent damage and loss of independence.
Most neuropathies are “length-dependent,” meaning the farthest nerve endings from the brain (those in the feet) are where the symptoms develop first or are worse. In severe cases, these neuropathies can spread upward toward the central parts of the body.