Actually, these nerves are discrete from one another. The Optical nerve is the 2nd cranial nerve. Pain perceived to be "behind" the eye rather than within it, can be a result of compromise or inflammation to the median branch of the Trigeminal nerve, the 5th cranial nerve.
Regards, Red
Red, is this the V1 nerve that I keep seeing people mention in various places on the site? I try to be as informed as possible on all things I encounter (most recently my TN2 diagnosis). I don't want to be going around saying the wrong thing. I have been getting intense burning/seering in my right eye, the socket, and my right cheek bone for the past month. For the past 1 week plus it has been all day...from morning until night. This occurs with light fluctuations, being in fluorescent light (especially white or blue hues), and when I try to read anything with any length to it...sometimes my own LwTN postings.
Richard A. "Red" Lawhern said:
Actually, these nerves are discrete from one another. The Optical nerve is the 2nd cranial nerve. Pain perceived to be "behind" the eye rather than within it, can be a result of compromise or inflammation to the median branch of the Trigeminal nerve, the 5th cranial nerve.
Regards, Red
V1 is the upper branch of the trigeminal nerve distribution. And if I am reading Dr. Rosenthal's presentation properly, he doesn't confuse V1 with the optic nerve which serves the cornea and eye. The branching of the optic nerve from the brain stem is close to the branching of the trigeminal nerve, but discrete. As for whether the "pain scrambler" actually works for either optic or trigeminal pain, on that question I have more reservations.
There are seven abstracts at Pub Med on the use of pain scramblers. The most promising appears to be http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16012423. The free text article is currently not available due to the US Government shut down. Try revisiting this after Congress comes to its senses sufficiently to reopen the government.
Regards, Red