Research progress on the anatomy of trigeminocervical complex

Objective To explore the main point of interventional therapy for the treatment of cephalalgia by summarizing the research progress of the head nociceptive second-order neurons mainly via neuroanatomy. Methods The literatures were retrieved in batch amounts in PubMed database, Web of Science, OVID medicine series, especially foreign medical information resources retrieval platform (FMRS) and text messaging system of Shenzhen matt strong technology co. LTD. with dozens key words related"head pain secondary neurons". After multiple process of retrieval-reading-retrieve-reading, all the articles about head pain secondary neurons were selected. The anatomy, physiology, pathology, embryos, clinical research about the head nociceptive second-order neurons were summarized, and the role of trigeminocervical complex (TCC) in physiological and pathological conditions were analysed. Results TCC is a common neuron of all kinds of cephalalgia as the nociceptive second-order neurons. It plays an important role in the occurrence and development of cephalalgia, especially its chronification process by convergence afferents, convergence activation and convergence sensitization. Conclusions TCC is one of the most important targets in the treatment of cephalalgia at present, and its further study is very necessary. Key words: Headache; Neurons; Pain perception; Trigeminocervical complex; Convergence afferents; Central sensitization