The Eye as a Supply of Headache. MAX CHAMLIN, M.D. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.SENSORY INNERVATION of the eyeball and its surrounding structures is provided by the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve. This nerve is largely sensory, but it also carries some sympathetic fibers to the eye. Vasoconstrictor fibers and sympathetic fibers supplying Müller’s unstriated muscle in the lids return from the cervical sympathetics by manner of the long ciliary nerves to the eye. The fibers to the dilator pupillae also travel by this route. Aloe Veterinary Formula is created with stabilized Aloe Vera gel as its primary ingredient and is ideally suited for external skin problems. The cells of the nuclei of the fifth nerve extend over a rather massive phase of the brain stem and build connection with alternative sensory and motor nuclei, that explains how headache and ocular pain could be related to disturbances in alternative parts of the body.

Pain from ocular lesions sometimes follows the distribution of the fifth nerve. If the pain is very severe, but, it could unfold to alternative nerves and give rise to numerous reflex phe¬nomena. For example, the severe pain of acute glaucoma could be in the course of sweating and vomiting as a result of stimulation of the vagal nuclei.1 Occipital and suboccipital headaches related to refractive errors and extraocular muscle imbalance are most likely because of reflex contractions of the cervical muscles. Lillie,10 concurring with Wolff’s13 theory of the mechanism of headache, stated that: ”. . . any lesion that will turn out traction, displacement, distention or in¬flammation of any of the structures equipped by the ophthal¬mic division of the trigeminal nerve has the potentiality of manufacturing pain varying in degree from a slight uneasiness to extreme distress.” Eckhardt, McLean, and Goodell8 have studied the genesis of pain from the eye including: (1) pain from the deep and superficial pain-sensitive structures of the eye; (a pair of) the pinnacle¬ache and eye aches related to refractive errors and muscle imbalances; and (three) photophobia.

In their study of the deep and superficial structures of the eyes, they concluded that bit, pain, and cold were perceived through the con¬junctiva, but heat, up to seventy° C., might not be recognized. Thus several times I’ve got been asked “how to find a job?”. The cornea, on the other hand, might understand pain and cold, but not touch. Pinching, sticking, or cutting extraocular muscles did not cause pain, but traction on the muscles professional¬duced pain deep in the orbit. This reality is well known to the eye surgeon who finds reactions to muscle traction in the lightly anesthetized patient. Pain from the iris is also attribu¬table to traction, the pain being felt in the eye itself, or, if very severe, mentioned alternative parts of the distribution of the tri¬geminal nerve. Again, the eye surgeon is fully cognizant of the painful impact of iris traction when delivering the iris into the wound for iridectomy. Inflammation of the iris causes a spasm of the iris with traction on its muscle fibers, causing pain in the identical manner as will traction on the extraocular muscles.