The overall goal of this procedure is to perform an infraorbital nerve injury in mice to study the development of trigeminal neuropathic pain and to test new treatment strategies. Isolated phase grooming behavior after infraorbital nerve ligation is one of the few animal models to study spontaneous neuropathic pain. But its use has long been hampered by the complexity of performing an infraorbital nerve ligation.
Compared to sensory reflex based pain testing, such as from fray or withdrawal responses from heat or cold stimulation, measuring spontaneous or ongoing pain has not received sufficient attention, considering that this is an important clinical symptom affecting quality of life. The distal approach to the infraorbital nerve has the advantage of being a surgically less demanding procedure than the intraorbital approach. It is minimally invasive, and can be performed without using a stereotaxic frame.
