Objective-To determine whether central pain in patients with spinal cord injury is only dependent on the lesioning of spinothalamic pathways. Methods-In sixteen patients with spinal cord injury and central dysaesthesia pain, somatosensory abnormalities in painful denervated skin areas were compared with somatosensory findings in normal skin areas as well as in non-painful denervated skin areas. Results-The threshold values for detection of thermal (heat, cold, heat pain, or cold pain) and tactile stimulation were significantly changed in denervated skin areas although there were no significant differences in the threshold values between painful and non-painful denervated skin areas. The reductions of sensations of touch, vibration, joint position, and two point discrimination in painful and non-painful denervated skin areas were not significantly different. Allodynia (pain caused by non-noxious stimulation) and wind up-like pain (pain caused by repeatedly pricking the skin) were significantly more common in painful than nonpainful denervated skin areas. Conclusions-Because pain and thermal sensory perception are primarily mediated to the brain via spinothalamic pathways, whereas the sensations of touch, vibration and joint position are primarily mediated by dorsal column-medial lemniscal pathways, the results indicate that central pain is not only dependent on the lesioning of either dorsal column-medial lemniscal pathways or spinothalamic pathways. The findings of abnormal evoked pain (allodynia and wind up-like pain) may be consistent with the experimental findings of hyperexcitability in nociceptive spinothalamic tract neurons, that may be involved in the pathogenesis of central pain. Severe and disabling chronic pain is a major sequel after spinal cord injury, with an estimated prevalence ranging from 18 to 63%.1 Pain in patients with spinal cord injury includes musculoskeletal pain, radicular pain, visceral pain, central dysaesthesia pain, psychogenic pain, lesional pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and limb pain secondary to compressive mononeuropathies.2 Central dysaesthesia pain is characterised by spontaneous continuous and intermittent pain as well as by pain evoked by non-noxious stimulation (allodynia).2 It is difficult to treat this type of pain as central pain is not effectively relieved by traditional analgesics or neurosurgical procedures.34 Increased knowledge of the pathogenesis of central dysaesthesia pain after spinal cord injury is desired.An important hypothesis is that the development of central pain is dependent on the lesioning of spinothalamocortical pathways.35 The hypothesis is partly based on the finding that sensory perception mediated to the brain via spinothalamocortical pathways is more often affected than sensory perception mediated by dorsal column-medial lemniscal pathways in this group of patients.3 6In the present study, somatosensory testing of patients with spinal cord injury and central dysaesthesia pain was undertaken to further examine whether central pain is ...