Question

How should the nurse classify pain that a patient with lung cancer is experiencing?

1) Radiating

2) Deep somatic

3) Visceral

4) Referred

Answer 1

Referred pain is when strong visceral sensations are felt in unexpected places due to the brain misinterpreting the sensations.

Step-by-step explanation:

When particularly strong visceral sensations rise to the level of conscious perception, the sensations are often felt in unexpected places. This irregular pattern of projection of conscious perception of visceral sensations is called referred pain. Depending on the organ system affected, the referred pain will project to different areas of the body.

The most broadly accepted theory for this phenomenon is that the visceral sensory fibers enter into the same level of the spinal cord as the somatosensory fibers of the referred pain location. By this explanation, the visceral sensory fibers from the mediastinal region, where the heart is located, would enter the spinal cord at the same level as the spinal nerves from the shoulder and arm, so the brain misinterprets the sensations from the mediastinal region as being from the axillary and brachial regions.