What is the medical term for the sensation of 'pins and needles'?

The medical term for the sensation of “pins and needles” is paresthesia.

Paresthesia describes abnormal skin sensations such as tingling, prickling, burning, numbness or a feeling of insects crawling. The familiar temporary version occurs when a limb “falls asleep”: pressure on nerves and reduced local blood flow interfere with nerve signaling, followed by tingling as normal function returns.

Brief paresthesia is usually harmless, but persistent, recurrent or spreading symptoms can have many causes. Examples include nerve compression, diabetes, vitamin B12 deficiency, hyperventilation, migraine, multiple sclerosis and certain medications. Shingles can cause painful tingling along the path of an affected nerve before a rash appears.

Paresthesia differs from anesthesia, which means loss of sensation, and from neuralgia, which refers specifically to nerve pain. Hyperesthesia means unusually increased sensitivity rather than the classic pins-and-needles feeling. The symptom can occur anywhere, though the hands, feet, arms and legs are common sites. Sudden paresthesia with weakness, facial drooping or speech difficulty requires urgent medical attention because it may signal a stroke.