Background Chronic visceral pain is the predominant symptom of functional gastrointestinal disorders and chronic pancreatitis. Such pain can impair thepatients’ quality of life, and can also serve as one of the principal reasons for these patients to seek medical help.Current treatment of chronic visceral pain has continued to be unsatisfactory, because of the underlying mechanisms of chronic visceral pain have remained unclear. Objective Combined with literature,we summarize the research and development of chronic visceral pain and signal transduction pathway currently. Content This article respectively describes visceral pain and signal transduction pathway,glial cells, especially the role of spinal microglia in chronic visceral pain. Trend Spinal microglia may serve as a promising target in the future treatment of chronic visceral pain.