Definition
Pain perceived at a site adjacent to or at a distance from the site of origin (local pain, see Fig. 1). To distinguish between “referred pain” and “spread of pain,” referred pain is typically restricted to areas outside the local pain area.
Distribution of experimentally induced local and referred pain. Hypertonic saline (0.5–1 ml, 5.8 %) was injected into musculus triceps brachii, biceps brachii, tibialis anterior, trapezius, and infraspinatus. The subjects (n = 9–15) outlined the area of pain. Saline-induced pain in tibialis anterior and infraspinatus showed distinct referred pain areas (not included in the local pain area), whereas the other muscles showed more localized pain around the injection site
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Graven-Nielsen, T. (2013). Referred Muscle Pain, Assessment. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_3768
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