What is "referred pain"

n. (context medicine English) pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus

n. pain that is felt at a place in the body different from the injured or diseased part where the pain would be expected; "angina pectoris can cause referred pain in the left shoulder"; "pain in the right shoulder can be referred pain from gallbladder disease"

Referred pain, also called reflective pain, is pain perceived at a location other than the site of the painful stimulus. An example is the case of angina pectoris brought on by a myocardial infarction ( heart attack), where pain is often felt in the neck, shoulders, and back rather than in the thorax (chest), the site of the injury. The International Association for the Study of Pain has not officially defined the term; hence several authors have defined the term differently.

Radiating pain is slightly different from referred pain; for example, the pain related to a myocardial infarction could either be referred or radiating pain from the chest. Referred pain is when the pain is located away from or adjacent to the organ involved; for instance, when a person has pain only in their jaw or left arm, but not in the chest. Referred pain has been described since the late 1880s. Despite an increasing amount of literature on the subject, the biological mechanism of referred pain is unknown, although there are several hypotheses.