[Pain surgery seen from the physiologic point of view].

The rationale for neurosurgical treatment of chronic pain is based on the knowledge of the processing of pain in the nervous system. Pain research during the last twenty years has clearly affected the attitude towards neurosurgical management of pain. Destructive neurosurgical procedures which attempt to block the transmission of pain. possess several drawbacks from a physiological point of view. Electrical stimulation of the nervous system activating endogenous pain controlling mechanisms does not require destruction of nervous tissue, and takes into account the dynamic aspects of pain regulation. Other neurosurgical operations have also been shown to relieve pain, although the physiological mechanisms involved are still unknown.