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The Suppression Of Pain And Inflammation

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Introduction

1.1. Inflammation
The suppression of pain and inflammation has been a major goal of medical treatment throughout the ages. Inflammation is an essential response to any noxious stimulus which threatens the host and may vary from a localized response to a more generalized one. [1, 2, 3]
The inflammation sequence can be summarized as follows:
• Initial injury causing release of inflammatory mediators (e.g. histamine, serotonin, leukotriene, SAS-A, lysosomes enzymes and prostaglandins).
• Vasodilation.
• Increased vascular permeability.
• Leukocyte migration, chemo taxis and phagocytosis.
• Proliferation of connective tissue cells.

1.1.1. Cause of Inflammation
The agents causing inflammation may be as under:
• Physical agents like heat, cold, radiation, mechanical trauma.
• Chemical agents like organic and inorganic poisons.
• Infective agents like bacteria, viruses and their toxins.
• Immunological agents like cell mediated and antigen-antibody reactions.

1.1.2. Signs of Inflammation Following are the cardinal signs of inflammation:
• Redness
• Swelling
• Heat
• Pain
• Loss of function

1.1.3. Sources of Chemical Mediators
The most common sources of chemical mediators are as follows [4]:
Cell/Tissue Mediators
Basophils  Histamine, Serotonin, SRS-A
Mast cell  Histamine, Serotonin, SRS-A, Lysosomes enzyme
Platelets  Histamine, Serotonin, lysosomes enzyme
Polymorph nuclear leukocytes (PMNs)  lysosome enzyme, leukotriene
Macrophages 

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