What is CRPS - Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Posted by Healthfitline
On
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is a term used to describe various painful conditions that arise as a result of a minor injury or a trauma that leads to nerve injury. The pain does not go away within the expected duration and instead, it continues to worsen. If no intervention is done early in the course, this kind of pain eventually leads to physical or motor impairement.
Though it is not clear what causes CRPS but there are theories that suggest it could be due to abnormal body immune response.
Types of CRPS
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is divided into two types; CRPS I and CRPS II. CRPS type I is the most common one and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RDS) follows under it. CRPS Type 1 occurs after a minor injury while CRPS Type 2 develop after a trauma that causes nerve injury.
CRPS Symptoms
- Diffuse burning pain that begins at the point of injury and move to the entire arm or leg usually on one side of the body.
- Intense pain more than the kind of pain you would expect with that kind of injury.
- Pain is usually accompanied by weakness.
- Change of temperature and color on the affected part.
- Edema on the affected part.
- Sweaty skin
- Pains worsens with time instead of decreasing.
- Decrease or increase in the level of sensitivity (hypoesthesia or hyperesthesia).
- Early stage - faster hair and nail growth which is reversed in the later stages of disease development.
- As times goes by, the affected limb becomes worse and the patient may experience muscle pain and muscle spasms.
With time other parts like bones, skins also get affected since the damaged nerves no longer function properly. At this stage, these changes are irreversible.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Possible Complications
- The patient may become depressed as he or she feels hopeless on what is happening due to physical limitations.
- Loss of function of the affected part.
- The pain may start spreading to the other parts of the body.
- Cognitive impairement since the nervous system is affected.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Diagnosis
Apart from taking the patient history and physical assessments tests. Other tests which are done to diagnose CRPS are; x-ray, bone scan and nerve conduction studies.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Treatment
There is no available cure of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and the management is geared towards providing the person concerned with the best possible intervention to live a normal life. Physical, cognitive and rehabilitation therapies are usually incorporated as part of the treatment.
Other procedure that may be performed to ease the pain include; Nerve block - Medicine is injected to relieves pain by interferring with pain transmission (pain signals do not reach the brain). Surgical intervention that involves the removal of a part of the nerve can also be performed.
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