Plastic Changes in Pain and Motor Network Induced by Chronic Burn Pain

Musculoskeletal diseases with chronic pain are difficult to control because of their association with both central as well as the peripheral nervous system. In burn patients, chronic pain is one of the major complications that cause persistent discomfort. The peripheral mechanisms of chronic pain by burn have been greatly revealed through studies, but the central mechanisms have not been identified. Our study aimed to characterize the cerebral plastic changes secondary to electrical burn (EB) and non-electrical burn (NEB) by measuring cerebral blood volume (CBV). Sixty patients, twenty with electrical burn (EB) and forty with non-electrical burn (NEB), having chronic pain after burn, along with twenty healthy controls, participated in the study. Voxel-wise comparisons of relative CBV maps were made among EB, NEB, and control groups over the entire brain volume. The CBV was measured as an increase and decrease in the pain and motor network including postcentral gyrus, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and insula in the hemisphere associated with burned limbs in the whole burn group. In the EB group, CBV was decreased in the frontal and temporal lobes in the hemisphere associated with the burned side. In the NEB group, the CBV was measured as an increase or decrease in the pain and motor network in the postcentral gyrus, precentral gyrus, and frontal lobe of the hemisphere associated with the burn-affected side. Among EB and NEB groups, the CBV changes were not different. Our findings provide evidence of plastic changes in pain and motor network in patients with chronic pain by burn.